Following a devastating round of power cuts that were implemented last month, load shedding might already be rearing its ugly head again in 2022. One top energy expert has warned South Africans to prepare for more rolling blackouts, after Eskom inadvertently drew attention to their current situation.
When is load shedding coming back?
Sikonathi Mantshantsha, a spokesperson for the utility, shared the figures for Tuesday’s evening peak of electricity usage. It was then pointed out by one eagle-eyed follower that demand had exceeded capacity last night.
‘Time to prepare’: grim load shedding warning issued
This is usually a tell-tale sign that all is not well at Eskom, and when demand exceeds supply, that’s when we start edging towards the dreaded territory of load shedding. Outages have been all to prevalent in the first quarter of the year, and Ted Blom fears that we’ll soon be back to square one.
The energy analyst Tweeted on Wednesday that the threat of load shedding is ‘looming large’ once more. He estimates that it is ‘more likely than not’ that power cuts return before the end of the month…
“Load shedding is looming large again. There is now a greater than 50% probability it will be implemented before the end of April 2022. This is now the time to prepare.”
Eskom sees demand surpass supply
The last round of load shedding had us down BAD. In March, Stage 4 outages persisted for days on end, bringing the electricity grid to its knees. The lights eventually came back on, and load shedding was last seen on Sunday 13 March. But little over three weeks later, SA is being told to prepare for the worst.
In fact, things were so bad last month, top Eskom officials even introduced the possibility of STAGE 10 blackouts for South Africa. Thankfully, we dodged that particular bullet – but Mzansi remains in the firing line.
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