South Africa hits 100 days of load-shedding in 2022

South Africa’s state-owned power utility has implemented power cuts on 100 days in 2022, with more to come.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. ramped up outages to so-called stage-4 load shedding, where it removes 4,000 megawatts from the grid, on Tuesday after three generation units at its Kendal coal-fired plant about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Johannesburg tripped.
The utility said on Wednesday this will continue until the end of the week, with a possibility of fewer blackouts from 17 September.
Stage 4 loadshedding will continue to be implemented throughout Thursday and Friday, with a
possibility of lower stages from Saturday morning pic.twitter.com/vigKoXmzDj— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) September 14, 2022
Eskom is struggling to meet electricity demand because its old and poorly maintained power stations continually break down.
The energy shortages are weighing on business confidence and output, and contributed to a 0.7% quarter-on-quarter contraction in the economy in the three months through June.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced steps in July to encourage private power generation to supplement supply from renewable sources.
Eskom Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer has warned that these plans may not deliver results for the next 12 months or so.