{"id":466060,"date":"2021-02-07T19:12:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T17:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=466060"},"modified":"2021-02-07T19:12:41","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T17:12:41","slug":"expect-eskom-load-shedding-until-the-end-of-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/466060\/expect-eskom-load-shedding-until-the-end-of-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Expect Eskom load shedding until the end of August"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africans can expect load shedding until at least the end of August 2021, as it continues to battle ageing infrastructure, and allegations of corruption.<\/p>\n<p>This is according to the chairperson of Parliament\u2019s portfolio committee on Public Enterprises, Khaya Magaxa, who was speaking on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.power987.co.za\/featured\/portfolio-committee-sa-load-shedding-crisis-to-last-beyond-august\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Power Week<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Magaxa said that in a meeting with the Public Enterprises Department, &#8220;we were informed that we will be having load shedding until end of August.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said one problem cited was a shortage of advanced technicians at Kusile &#8211; the coal-fired power plant under construction by Eskom.<\/p>\n<p>The chairperson said that the technicians operate globally, with Eskom struggling to get them into the country due to the travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Magaxa said that additional challenges include the state power utility&#8217;s old &#8216;equipment&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is a continuation of new challenges that emerge every time,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The latest load shedding bout over the weekend was blamed on damp coal, following heavy rains around the country.<\/p>\n<p>As Bloomberg explains, for more than half a century, Eskom has built the bulk of its plants near coal mines and conveyed the bulk of its fuel on conveyor belts.<\/p>\n<p>That model has rendered the generation system vulnerable to heavy rainfall: several consecutive days of downpours can simultaneously soak through coal stockpiles and interrupt operations to extract new supply, Bloomberg said.<\/p>\n<p>The problem has surfaced several times over the past few years and manifested again on Friday, it said.<\/p>\n<p>Eskom\u2019s generation system has also been plagued by other problems &#8211; from breakdowns at its poorly maintained plants to conveyor-belt fires. These have caused blackouts and slashed economic output.<\/p>\n<p>Eskom has previously said that the risk of power cuts will be significantly reduced by September.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/466030\/astrazeneca-vaccine-less-effective-against-south-africa-variant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AstraZeneca vaccine less effective against South Africa variant<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africans can expect load shedding until at least the end of August 2021, as it continues to battle ageing infrastructure, and corruption allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":461592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164,26],"class_list":["post-466060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466060"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466070,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466060\/revisions\/466070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}