Johannesburg - Power utility Eskom imposed a second day of “Stage 2” rolling blackouts on Sunday to ease pressure on the national grid and build up diesel supplies and water reserves in hydropower dams.
“State 2” means the utility, which produces nearly all the electricity in Africa's most sophisticated economy, is reducing nationwide demand by 2 000 MW, out of normal demand of around 30 000 MW.
Eskom said the cuts would last from 0600 GMT to 2000 GMT.
South Africa is facing months of power shortages as engineers step up maintenance to overhaul power plants that have been run too hard over the last few years to compensate for a lack of investment in new generation capacity.
Two huge new coal-fired power plants are under construction but have been hit by technical and labour-related delays.
The power shortages are imposing a major burden on the economy and are cited as one of the main reasons for growth forecasts of little more than 2 percent this year.
Reuters