From Reuters via Gulf Times

On paper, South Africa’s long-term energy plans look solid, with coal, nuclear, gas and renewables all viable options.

But none are likely to prevent potentially crippling future power crunches in Africa’s biggest economy unless a decision is made soon on when and how to add capacity to the grid.

South Africa’s failure to invest in new power plants nearly two decades ago meant it paid dearly in 2008 when the grid nearly collapsed, leading to power cuts that cost the economy billions of rand in lost output and dented investor confidence.

State-owned power utility Eskom is scrambling to finish new power plants, including Medupi and Kusile, massive coal-fired outfits with a combined capacity of about 9,500 megawatts (MW).

But they are still several years away from completion, and in the interim Eskom will be battling to keep the lights on, nursing its fleet of ageing generating units and hoping breakdowns do not reduce reserve margins to critical levels.

The utility has declared four power “emergencies” since November and earlier this month imposed rolling blackouts, known locally as “load shedding”, for the first time in six years.

Although they lasted only a day, the blackouts came at a bad time for President Jacob Zuma and his governing African National Congress two months before a national election. The ANC is expected to win but its majority is likely to be reduced by public anger over corruption scandals and deficient delivery of public services in many poor black townships.

The worst is not over, says Eskom, which provides 95% of South Africa’s electricity and has a total generation capacity of 42,000 MW. This is slightly less than Turkey but almost 10 times more than Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest economy and top oil producer.

Although South Africa’s infrastructure is generally the envy of Africa, at the moment nearly a quarter of its power generation capacity is out of action, mainly for maintenance.

Read more at Gulf Times