Eskom said on Wednesday that South Africa’s power supply remained limited and electricity prices were set to rise steadily.
”The system is still tight and vulnerable,” Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said in a presentation. ”Electricity prices are going to go up steadily.”
An economic boom coupled with decades of underinvestment in South Africa’s power sector has seen Eskom, which ranks among the top 10 power companies in the world in terms of sales and capacity, battling to shore up electricity supplies.
The power crisis has scared investors and crimped the country’s economic outlook as platinum and gold mines continue to operate below full capacity and millions of homes and businesses are regularly plunged into darkness.
Eskom has said electricity prices needed to double in the next two years if it was to deal with the electricity crisis.
Etzinger said all Eskom’s power stations had at least 11 days coal supply, and that while power cuts were likely in the coming months, he expected the impact to be minor.
He added that the utility could no longer handle larger smelters to the extent it had previously.
”We simply can’t accommodate large smelters and the like … to the degree we have in the past,” Etzinger said.
Critics say the government ignored warnings and failed to adequately plan for future demand growth. Many people are concerned the power crisis may black out the Soccer World Cup, which South Africa hosts in 2010, despite official reassurances stadiums will have generators for the tournament.
Eskom has blamed its woes on a combination of factors, including the failure of the government to invest in electricity generating plants, maintenance problems at its existing facilities and wet weather that affected its coal supplies. – Reuters