CSIR: 2020 load shedding has surpassed previous year
Research by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has revealed that this year’s load shedding has already pushed past 2019 levels.
On Thursday morning, Eskom announced it would implement stage 2 load shedding with the possibility of the rolling blackouts continuing into the weekend.
CSIR researcher Jarrad Wright says South Africa could experience load shedding for the next two to three years if the Department of Mineral Resources fails to speed up its energy projects.
"The other option is implementing of existing policies, that is the Integrated Resource Plan of 2021. It seems we are really behind on that one which means [generation] capacity will come on later than originally expected.”
Despite the fact that the country has been using considerably less power as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown, Eskom has moved between stage 1 and stage 2 load shedding over seven consecutive days.
This is already surpassed the three days of load shedding it envisaged at the start of winter.
Listen to Wright below:
Load shedding Stage 2 is back
The power cuts will start at 8am and continue until 10pm on Thursday night. The power utility's spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says the system is under severe pressure due to a number of unit breakdowns. "There is a high possibility that Stage 2 load shedding may be escalated to stage 3 for the evening peak.
