South Africa faces severe power cuts

South Africa’s power utility Eskom has announced controlled outages, cutting 3,000 megawatts of electricity from the grid due to what it called a ‘temporary setback.’

The measure, known as load shedding, follows similar cuts in January after nearly 10 months of uninterrupted power.

Eskom said it would provide an update on Sunday but didn’t specify the cause of the latest issues. The outages are often triggered by breakdowns at Eskom’s aging coal plants, which supply most of South Africa’s electricity.

Load shedding is staged, with stage 1 cutting 1,000 MW, and stage 6 being the highest level. In the early hours of Sunday, Eskom escalated the cuts to stage 6 after multiple failures at power stations.

They described the move as ‘essential’ to replenish emergency reserves and prepare for the week ahead. This is the most severe power cut since November 2023.