By Caryn Dolley and Natasha Joseph
Amid fears of a diesel shortage in the Western Cape this festive season, Eskom says a liquid fuel shortage is "aggravating a very serious situation" of rolling blackouts.
But the industry denies diesel is in short supply.
Since early on Monday parts of South Africa were plunged into darkness in two-and-a-half-hour rolling blackouts when four of Eskom's generators experienced technical problems and had to be pulled off the national grid, causing "a major capacity shortage".
The blackouts are expected to continue until Friday.
Andrew Etzinger, Eskom's general manager of strategy, said the power situation in the Western Cape was being aggravated by a liquid fuel shortage, which meant a number of gas turbines and power stations could not operate.
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These turbines were usually used to avoid load shedding.
"We're shedding 2 500 megawatts at the moment. At the same time, 600MW are not available because of (diesel supply) constraints. This isn't a major problem, but it is making a contribution and aggravating a very serious situation.
"We don't use the normal diesel, but a slightly different type which has a different content," Etzinger said.
The South African Petroleum Retailers Association said there was a diesel shortage and this was causing problems at service stations which would probably continue during the festive season.
But the South African Petroleum Industry Association's director, Connel Ngcukana, said it was not aware of a fuel shortage and a meeting would be held on Tuesday to discuss fuel supplies during December.
While the Department of Minerals and Energy also said it did not know about any fuel shortages, Eskom maintained that a lack of liquid fuel was affecting gas turbines and small power stations.
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