Eskom falls painfully short of going 365 days loadshedding-free

After having operated South Africa’s electricity system without resorting to rotational power cuts for 310 days, Eskom declared Stage 3 loadshedding at 17:00 on January 31, after the loss of 3 600 MW of coal capacity resulted in a depletion of diesel and pumped-storage reserves. Describing the development as a “sad moment” and a “setback”, Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Romokgopa nevertheless insisted that Eskom’s operational performance remained on an upward trend.