South Africa’s state-owned power utility, Eskom SOC Ltd, will remove 4,000 megawatts of power from the national grid until 5 a.m. on Monday, as delays in returning three of its generating units to service constrain capacity.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. will scale back the power cuts to 2,000 megawatts until 4 p.m., before increasing the blackouts back to 4,000 megawatts until 5 a.m. on Tuesday, the utility said in an emailed statement.
“This pattern will be implemented daily until further notice,” the utility said.
Breakdowns at generating units have reduced to 15,798MW of generating capacity, while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 3,099MW, the company said.
Eskom Latest: Weekend Outages; Cost of Power Cuts on GDP (July 28, 4:51pm)
South Africa’s state-owned power utility will continue to cut 4,000 megawatts of power from the national grid until 5 a.m. on Saturday due to delays in returning four of its generating units to service.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. will thereafter remove 3,000 megawatts from the grid until 4 p.m., followed by 4,000 megawatts until 5 a.m. on Sunday. It will then cut 2,000 megawatts until 4 p.m., and 4,000 megawatts until midnight., it said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
South Africa’s Central Bank Estimates GDP Growth Would Have Been Closer to 2% Without Power Cuts (July 28, 1:59 p.m.)
The central bank estimates that South Africa’s economic growth this year and over the next two would have been closer to 2% had it not been for frequent power cuts, according to Governor Lesetja Kganyago.
The central bank is forecasting growth of 0.4% this year, and expects it to average about 1% over the next two years.
Although loadshedding, the local term for outages, “entered the South African lexicon 15 years ago, it has intensified over the past two years, placing a binding constraint on growth,” Kganyago said Friday at a meeting of the central bank’s shareholders.
Energy-Starved Vineyards Count Cost of South Africa Blackouts (July 28, 7 a.m.)
Loadshedding is also badly affecting the country’s more than 300-year-old wine industry. It’s impacting all stages of production, from irrigation to bottling.
If power cuts interrupt watering the vines can experience “partial stresses,” which can reduce the size and number of fruit, according to Wanda Augustyn, the communications manager for Vinpro, an industry body.
The 2023 harvest is estimated at about 1.2 million tonnes, 14.2% smaller than last year, according to the South African Wine Industry and Information Systems, an industry association.
The drop is attributed to a combination of factors, including cold, wet weather and the uprooting of vineyards due to disease. A lack of electricity in intensively irrigated areas negatively impacted crop sizes.
Read More: Energy-Starved Vineyards Count Cost of South Africa Blackouts
South Africa Starts Fund to Fast-Track Power Generation Projects (July 27, 3:32 p.m.)
South Africa has started a fund to help the government fast-track electricity-generation projects needed to end the country’s crippling energy crisis.
The Energy One Stop Shop and Resilience Fund will aim to streamline regulatory processes required for private investment in electricity production and help speed up the approval of projects, Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel said at a virtual launch on Thursday.
Read More: South Africa Starts Fund to Fast-Track Power Generation Projects
South African Companies Pledge Help as State Services Collapse (July 27, 11:08 a.m.)
More than 115 companies operating in South Africa representing over 1.2 million employees signed a pledge to help the government do its job, highlighting the collapse of the state’s ability to provide basic services ranging from electricity to policing.
The firms, which include Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc, undertook to provide “funding, skills and expertise” to tackle “low economic growth, collapsing infrastructure, rampant crime and corruption,” according to a joint statement sent by email on Thursday.
Read More: South African Companies Pledge Help as State Services Collapse
New Projects in South Africa Plunge to the Lowest in Four Years (July 26, 12:09 p.m.)
Fixed investment in South Africa dropped by almost a third in the first half because of persistent power outages, rising interest rates and cost pressures that have weighed on profitability and eroded business confidence.
The value of new projects fell to an annualized 173.1 billion rand ($9.82 billion) in the six months through June, compared with 248.5 billion rand a year earlier, according to a report published by Nedbank Group Ltd., one of the country’s largest lenders, on Tuesday. That’s the lowest since 2019.
Read More: New Projects in South Africa Plunge to the Lowest in Four Years
--With assistance from Antony Sguazzin, Mpho Hlakudi and Khuleko Siwele.
