Today’s the day everyone. It’s quite literally a dark day in South Africa as Eskom reaches a new milestone: 100 days of blackouts this year alone. The power utility has officially implemented power cuts on 100 days in 2022. And the party’s not quite over just yet, with more still to come.
Also read: Eskom says Stage 4 loadshedding will be staying an extra day
Eskom is struggling to meet South Africa’s electricity demands because its old and poorly maintained power stations continually break down – let’s think about it, how many Eskom loadshedding announcements have we read stating that this unit, that unit, and the other unit have broken down?
The power utility was forced to rev up power outages to Stage 4 loadshedding on Tuesday 13 September, where it removes 4000 MW from the grid following the breakdown of three generation units at its Kendal coal-fired station about 100 km east of Johannesburg tripped.
The state-owned utility expected to reduce this to 2000 MW from Thursday until the end of the week. That is until another two breakdowns occurred each at Kendal and Majuba on Thursday morning.
Also read: Eskom moves to code red as it encounters more hardships
According to Bloomberg’s calculations, this will bring the total days of blackouts in this year’s third quarter to 40.
In July, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced steps to encourage private power generators to supplement supply from renewable sources. However, Jan Oberholzer, Eskom’s COO warns that these plans may not deliver results for the next 12 months or so.
So perhaps Eskom could be celebrating their 200th day of blackouts sooner than we would prefer.
But in the spirit of all tragic dramas, at least we can take to Twitter for some much-needed comic relief:
Ah Nandos, what would we do without you?
Even adolescence hasn’t got this many stages.#Loadshedding ? pic.twitter.com/V116QoUPoj
— NandosSA (@NandosSA) September 12, 2022
Eskom’s playlist for their 100th day celebration
I feel for events with bands going down this weekend. No power. #Loadshedding #Eskom pic.twitter.com/llRokoI8sa
— Barney Simon (@BarneySimon) September 9, 2022
Wonder what next year’s catchprase will be
#Loadshedding #Stage4 #VoetsekANC
Last year we were living in levels. Now we are living in stages? pic.twitter.com/91YQATykVu— @18 September? ?? (@SiphiweMaphisa6) September 14, 2022
Also read:
VIDEO: Loadshedding goes from unwanted guest to life of the party
Picture: Unsplash