South Africa fears deeper power outages as plants deteriorate

South Africa’s government is bracing for more frequent and longer electricity outages as the state-owned power utility’s aged and poorly maintained plants continue to deteriorate. The nation has been subjected to rolling blackouts, known locally as loadshedding, since 2008, with 4 000 MW of capacity currently being cut from the grid to ensure it doesn’t collapse. The ongoing energy shortages were a major contributor to the economy’s 0.7% contraction in the second quarter.