Article by: Dumisane Dube
South Africans can expect load-shedding for the next three months as power utility Eskom battles with electricity generating capacity. Chris Yelland, a leading energy expert has warned that the load-shedding can even go on for longer.
“They don’t have any more generation reserve capacity and any further loss of supply and generation units will result in load-shedding.” Explains Yelland.
The country has been experiencing stage two load-shedding all week.
“As we’ve seen, we’ve had Stage 2 load-shedding for several days now, planned to the end of Sunday but the forecast of Eskom has indicated, [and this is indicated on Eskom’s website] a high-risk probability of load-shedding, every week for the next three months. It does not mean that we will have continues load shedding for three months but there is a high risk we will have intermittent load-shedding, that’s a given” energy analyst Chris Yelland said.
Chris Yelland further said although Eskom said South Africans should get ready for three months of power cuts, there is a probability that the problem is in fact bigger and will take longer to fix.
“He said the challenge is that the ageing power plants are not getting the right maintenance and the new ones are not functioning properly to give a break to the old ones” added Yelland.
The energy expert has urged the government to allow consumers to be part of the solution by letting them source their own energy.
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