South Africa's Eskom resumes 2 GW loadshedding over technical problems

South Africa’s national power utility Eskom has decided to implement "load shedding" measures due to breakdowns at seven of its coal-fired power plants. The company will implement stage-2 loadshedding, shaving up to 2 GW of power supply from the national grid. In the last few days, technical problems have affected 10 units at seven power plants (three 600 MW units at Tutuka, two units at Majuba, and one unit each at Kriel (500 MW), Matla (600 MW), Medupi (750 MW), Kusile (800 MW) and Duvha (600 MW)), representing a total loss of 6,044 MW and raising the total unplanned capacity lost to over 16 GW (planned maintenance at 4,171 MW).

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. New loadshedding measures were implemented in July 2020. 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.