South Africa’s embattled power producer Eskom announced on Tuesday morning that it had implemented the dreaded stage four loadshedding after several breakdowns to its systems overnight.
“Stage 4 loadshedding was implemented at 05:30 due to breakdowns of five generators at five power stations overnight. The loadshedding will be implemented until further notice,” the state-owned entity said.
South African has been battling power cuts since 2007 and several CEOs and boards have come and gone with little success in arresting the problems that beset Eskom. Government this month announced a new board in the hope it will turn things around at the troubled utility.
The entity on Friday signed lease agreements with four independent power producer investors for the commercial lease and use of land parcels at two of its power stations in Mpumalanga province for the construction of new clean energy generation capacity.
Eskom said it expects that the generators will be connected to the grid within 24 to 36 months from financial closure, subject to environmental, land zoning and other regulatory approvals.
“By making Eskom land available close to the power stations, where there is sufficient grid capacity, we have taken an innovative step to find the quickest way possible and within our scope of influence to boost the country’s generation capacity,” said Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter.
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