The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has explained that load shedding experienced in 2020 has already overtaken 2019 levels and could be worse.
Over 1,383 GWh have being wiped off the grid and 661 hours of outages have been recorded so far this year.
There is a probability that more is to be expected.
South Africa has experienced its Stage 2 of load shedding on Thursday, and there’s a chance that Stage 3 will strike within the next 24 – 48 hours.
However, Eskom has published a chart for its three-month outlook for load shedding.
The chart shows that there is a possibility that SA experience “high” blackouts over the next 14 weeks, taking us right through to November.
Despite the country’s lockdown which caused a drop in the consumption of electricity, the power company is still unable to keep up with the request for electricity.
#LoadsheddingAlert: I hope the political leaders, the leaders of the electricity supply industry, and the captains of industry, are not colour-blind and can see the colour RED. The latest 3-month outlook from @Eskom_SA is bleak. pic.twitter.com/ZAfb49hfss
— Chris Yelland (@chrisyelland) August 13, 2020
The block of red warnings explains the likely risk of blackouts.
Energy expert Chris Yelland has blamed the current infrastructure that continued to fall short as the cause of this situation because electricity demand in South Africa, according to him has ‘significantly declined to its lowest levels since 2008’.
However, it is not confirmed that the load shedding will continue for months but the risk of it happening is high.
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