Johannesburg, Mar. 9, (dpa/GNA) – South African state-owned power utility Eskom announced on Wednesday an extension of nationwide power cuts announced just the day before as it works to prevent a nationwide blackout.
Large parts of the country will be taken off the grid for hours at a time until Friday in order to prevent an overload of the grid.
In total, 15,439 megawatts (MW) of power was missing due to outages – in addition to the loss of 5,505MW due to planned maintenance work. In addition, there is too little fuel for the replacement diesel generators.
Despite the global struggle to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in order to protect the climate, South Africa, with its rich coal reserves, continues to rely on its outdated coal-fired power plants, which are increasingly prone to breakdowns, to generate almost 80% of its energy.
At the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, representatives of the German government declared their intention to support the country in its transition to clean energy sources.
The $765 million promised by Germany is part of a new energy partnership with South Africa, which has also been joined by Britain, the US, France and the EU.
GNA