The reinstatement of load-shedding has further depressed the country’s economic outlook for the first quarter (Q1), the Bureau of Economic Research (BER) has said.
“The picture for Q1 is more muted after stage 2 load-shedding was implemented from Tuesday as a whopping 14 748 megawatts of generation capacity was unavailable due to unplanned maintenance, breakdowns and outages delays,” the Bureau said.
It added that this was in addition to 5 385mw being unavailable due to planned maintenance and in total amounted to over 40% of Eskom’s installed generation capacity.
In addition to Eskom’s ongoing power generation woes is the news that positive Covid-19 cases have affected the human resource capacity of the utility and its suppliers.
“It is very concerning that Eskom’s forecast of demand and supply dynamics suggests that there is a risk of load-shedding every week for the next three months,” the BER emphasised.
