Power utility Eskom yesterday moved to Level 4 load-shedding and warned of up to 101 days of load shedding over the winter period, which economists said would dampen investment sentiment.
Eskom's Head of Transmission Sekgomotso Scheepers yesterday indicated that the strain to the system from various assaults risked available capacity dipping to between 37 and 101 days over the winter period, and the utility had to redouble its efforts in fending off the unplanned loss of capacity.
Estimates earlier this year by audit firm Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) were that load shedding in South Africa increased by 38 percent in 2021 with more than 2,400 gigawatt hours (GWhs) lost. PwC estimates that this has reduced real GDP growth by up to 3.1 percentage points, costing the economy up to 400 000 potential jobs.
Economist at NKC Africa Economics, Jacques Nel, said Eskom's issues affected both actual work and sentiment.
"There are two dimensions to this – there are the actual power cuts when nothing happens, when you can’t switch on a machine or open a shop, and then the sentiment the realisation that investment into that situation would be risky. It is especially hard for businesses whose income that rely on electricity. If you are not sure what you are going to do, it contains your spend," Nel said.
Eskom's CEO Andre de Ruyter said the utility was disappointed by its generation unit, as the multiple malfunctions added up to is shedding up to 4 000 kilowats (Kw) to keep supply in range of the 50 Hertzs spectrum, required to avoid a meltdown that would take weeks for the entire grid and economy to recover from and function again.
"That is the heartbeat of the system, either too high and too lower than that and it would take weeks for restorations of the system, there would be negative consequences, we had to impose load-shedding for the integrity of the system," De Ruyter said.
De Ruyter said the R396 billion finance extended to South Africa for the Just Transition process at the last COP 26 meeting would allow Eskom to reduce its carbon footprint, but more importantly, enable it to have cash to spend.
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