South Africa is hurtling towards new power cuts, due to hit the country in May.
This is despite Eskom conducting maintenance on its ageing power stations during a decline in demand in the lockdown.
Energy analysts said that while the current decline in demand greatly helped Eskom, it had allowed for only low-level and routine repairs.
Lockdowns in countries that make boilers, turbines and controls systems – essential for power plants – mean Eskom has battled to secure vital components especially for its Medupi and Kusile power plants. Bottlenecks at ports have added to the delays.
The global lockdowns have also prevented Eskom from bringing in specialised engineers to work on the equipment.
Eskom’s power generation head, Bheki Nxumalo, told the Sunday Times that power cuts were “most likely to resume not long after the national lockdown is lifted during May” and continue until August 2021.
In December, Eskom implemented stage 6 power cuts. According to energy analysts, every hour of every stage of power cuts costs the economy between R50m ($2.6m) and R100m ($5.3m).
