Eskom has asked National Treasury for more money to buy diesel.
South Africa’s cash-strapped power utility Eskom has asked the National Treasury for R19.5 billion to buy diesel to fuel auxiliary power plants – a request that’s unlikely to be heeded, said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.Africa’s most-industrialised economy has been subjected to record power outages this year, mainly due to breakdowns at Eskom’s poorly maintained coal-fired plants that account for over 80% of South Africa’s power supply.
Eskom has spent R11 billion rand on the fuel in the 10 months through October and warned last month that electricity outages may intensify if it runs out of funds to buy the fuel. The state-owned company has imposed 176 days of rolling blackouts so far in 2022, according to Bloomberg calculations. It warned the power cuts may “significantly increase” in the next six to 12 months as planned maintenance and breakdowns reduce generation capacity.Power utility Eskom says that full-day continuous load shedding at stage 2 will be implemented on Friday, and it will continue until further notice.
This follows the breakdown of six generating units at five power stations, it said, on top of constraints due to diesel pressures and the need to conserve energy.
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