South Africa heading for another year of record-breaking power cuts

Increased demand and degrading infrastructure is pushing South Africa to its second year of record-breaking power cuts.

The onset of winter has seen increased demand for electricity and this will lead to capacity constraints throughout this period, particularly during the evening and morning peaks, South Africa’s power company Eskom said, adding that this would generally require the implementation of load shedding during the evening peaks.

Electricity was rationed again on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, bringing the number of days in which nationwide power cuts were made to 8 so far this month.

From January 1 to May 10, nationwide power cuts have been implemented for 32 days. This is six days more than the 26 days of load shedding during the same period last year.

In 2021, South Africa experienced 1 130 hours of planned power cuts – the highest ever, and this year is already shaping as another record-breaker.

Eskom said that load shedding is implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid, and urged all South Africans to continue using electricity sparingly, especially between 05:00 – 09:00 in the mornings and 16:00 – 22:00 in the evenings.

The country’s energy crisis is caused by degrading infrastructure and its inability to adapt to rising political challenges.

Featured image credit: Eskom