(Bloomberg) -- 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 kilometers (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 Sept. 17.
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.
(Updates second paragraph with Eskom extending 4,0000MW cuts)
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