Posted on 12/02/2018 7:18:10 PM PST by george76
Eskom’s warning that the country was threatened by months of rotating blackouts became a reality in less than 24 hours.
The state-owned company, which produces most of South Africa’s power, said on Wednesday that controlled blackouts could return and last throughout the year. Even more concerning is that the company expects energy availability of the system will keep declining into early next year and probably only recover to current levels in six months.
By Thursday, Eskom announced it was cutting 1GW from the grid. It doubled that amount on Friday in an outage that’s scheduled to last 13 hours.
For South Africans, that means a return to stocking up on candles, mopping up thawed refrigerators and sitting in gridlocked roads around blank traffic lights. All of that became familiar in 2008, and again in 2015, when Eskom implemented months of the outages known locally as load shedding. Those cuts hamstrung the economy, limiting industrial output and hurting business and consumer confidence.
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The utility is also running low on coal.
This is where people have misunderstood the whole situation in Africa from day 1.
South Africa is a figurative zebra. If you shoot it in the white the black will die with it
Thanks george76. Instead of BRICS, perhaps South Africa should team up with North Korea, another place where it is "normal" to experience intermittent electrical service. I wonder how their potable water crisis is shaping up?
‘Your time is up’ South Africa sets date for white farmer land grabs – March 2019
I have heard the quote before, but can’t remember where it it from.
“Zero compensation may be regarded as just and equitable”.
This idea will make it’s way here.
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