South African power cuts worsen on cold weather, breakdowns

South African state power utility Eskom said it would ramp up power cuts on Wednesday, as cold weather caused a spike in demand after many of its generating units had broken down. Eskom's struggles to power Africa's most industrialised nation are one of the main obstacles to economic growth.

South African state power utility Eskom said it would ramp up power cuts on Wednesday, as cold weather caused a spike in demand after many of its generating units had broken down.

Eskom's struggles to power Africa's most industrialised nation are one of the main obstacles to economic growth. The company, which started implementing "stage 2" power cuts on Tuesday, said that from 3 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) it would increase them to "stage 4," requiring up to 4,000 megawatts (MW) of power to be shed from the national grid.

It said 11,300 MW of its roughly 44,000 MW nominal capacity was offline because of unplanned breakdowns, adding to 5,040 MW on planned maintenance. Separately, the utility said in a presentation to a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that the risk of power cuts would remain until after it had completed an 18-month maintenance programme.

Eskom's gross debt increased to 488 billion rand ($29.3 billion) in March 2020, from 440 billion rand a year earlier, it added in the presentation, citing its pre-audited results for the 2019/20 financial year. ($1 = 16.6577 rand)