Suburbs across Johannesburg, South Africa\u2019s economic hub, were hit by widespread power outages on Friday that electricity providers were unable to explain.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnicians are on site to determine the cause of the outage,\u201d Khulu Phasiwe, a spokesman for state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., said via Twitter.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no estimated time for the restoration of electricity at this stage, he said.<\/p>\n
Eskom has not implemented rolling blackouts in the city, Andrew Etzinger, Eskom\u2019s acting head of generation, said via a mobile phone text message. A spokesman for Johannesburg\u2019s City Power wasn\u2019t immediately able to comment.<\/p>\n
Eskom said earlier on Friday that there was a risk of blackouts because the power system \u201cremained tight and vulnerable\u201d and the power could be cut at short notice if there was a shift in plant performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could include a significant loss in generating plant due to unplanned technical breakdowns,\u201d Eskom said in the statement.<\/p>\n