The Economic Consequences Of Load Shedding In South Africa And The State Of The Electrical Grid
The economic consequences of load shedding in South Africa and the state of the electrical grid
11 Feb 2015
Gavin van der Nest, tralac Researcher, comments on the current electricity crisis in South Africa
Perhaps one of the most pressing challenges facing the South African economy in 2015 is maintaining the structural integrity of its electricity generation network. The power system has come under severe strain due to maintenance backlogs and a failure to bring new generating capacity timeously online to match economic and social development. This has led to electricity demand at times outstripping supply. Consequently, this had led to the national parastatal supplier of electricity Eskom implementing load shedding. This involves planned rolling blackouts on a rotating schedule throughout the country to avoid total power system failure. If the system had to collapse, it would take weeks for the system to get back to supplying electricity to the grid. This in itself would be catastrophic for the country and result in hundreds of billions of rands of loss in economic activity.
Load shedding is not a new development and bears a striking resemblance to the electricity supply crisis of late 2007. Here too electricity demand outstripped available supply and threatened the stability of the national grid. The cause of that crisis has mainly been attributed to insufficient generation capacity. Problems with the supply of coal to Eskom’s coal-fired power plants, skills shortages at Eskom and an increasing demand for electricity as a consequence of economic growth have also been postulated as possible causes of the crisis. At the time, it was decided that additional power stations and generators needed to be constructed. Steps taken by Eskom to maintain their plants, increase coal supplies and plant performance improvement led to a suspension of load shedding from May 2008 onwards. Another possible reason for the suspension of load shedding could be the Global Financial
11 Feb 2015
Gavin van der Nest, tralac Researcher, comments on the current electricity crisis in South Africa
Perhaps one of the most pressing challenges facing the South African economy in 2015 is maintaining the structural integrity of its electricity generation network. The power system has come under severe strain due to maintenance backlogs and a failure to bring new generating capacity timeously online to match economic and social development. This has led to electricity demand at times outstripping supply. Consequently, this had led to the national parastatal supplier of electricity Eskom implementing load shedding. This involves planned rolling blackouts on a rotating schedule throughout the country to avoid total power system failure. If the system had to collapse, it would take weeks for the system to get back to supplying electricity to the grid. This in itself would be catastrophic for the country and result in hundreds of billions of rands of loss in economic activity.
Load shedding is not a new development and bears a striking resemblance to the electricity supply crisis of late 2007. Here too electricity demand outstripped available supply and threatened the stability of the national grid. The cause of that crisis has mainly been attributed to insufficient generation capacity. Problems with the supply of coal to Eskom’s coal-fired power plants, skills shortages at Eskom and an increasing demand for electricity as a consequence of economic growth have also been postulated as possible causes of the crisis. At the time, it was decided that additional power stations and generators needed to be constructed. Steps taken by Eskom to maintain their plants, increase coal supplies and plant performance improvement led to a suspension of load shedding from May 2008 onwards. Another possible reason for the suspension of load shedding could be the Global Financial