South Africa’s struggling state power firm Eskom said on Sunday that it would extend electricity cuts until Monday.
Eskom had said late Saturday that it
would cut up to 2,000 megawatts (MW) from the national grid
from 2000
GMT on Saturday until 0600 GMT on Sunday, after a conveyor belt failure
at its Medupi coal-fired power station.
The cash-strapped utility said on Sunday
that the conveyor belt had been repaired but that plant breakdowns were
still constraining the power system in Africa’s most industrialised
economy.
According to Reuters, Eskom has been
battling to keep the lights on, despite low electricity demand over the
Christmas and New Year public holidays. It last implemented power cuts
in mid-December.
It is rushing to bring back online some
generating units from repairs and maintenance, and to replenish diesel
and water levels at backup generators so it can meet demand on Monday,
when many people will return to work.
Around a third of Eskom’s 44,000 MW nominal generating capacity was offline on Saturday because of plant breakdowns.
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