The South African state-owned power group Eskom has resumed load shedding after breakdowns at the Kendal, Tutuka, Kriel and Medupi coal-fired power plants during the week. The company has returned some power generation units to service, but the rising electricity consumption due to a colder weather has prompted the company to implement Stage 2 load shedding, i.e. cutting up to 2 GW of power from the national grid to protect the network.
South Africa has been facing similar load-shedding periods for years. Eskom is suffering from several operating and development issues at its coal-fired plants. The construction of two long-awaited giant coal-fired power projects, Kusile and Medupi (4.8 GW each), is running years behind schedule and tens of billions of rands over budget. In December 2019, Eskom experienced unplanned breakdowns at its power plants (up to 14.2 GW unavailable), as the group was facing incessant rains that affected its coal supply ("wet" coal) and flooded some power plants. Many energy-intensive industrial groups such as mining companies are requesting deregulation of approval procedures to develop their own power capacities, to ensure reliable power supply in a context of rolling load-shedding episodes.
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