Eskom warns that power grid is under ‘severe pressure’

Eskom’s Kusile power station in Mpumalanga.

Eskom on Tuesday evening asked South Africans to reduce their electricity usage, saying the national grid was under “severe pressure”.

While the beleaguered power utility has managed to avoid implementing load shedding for most of September, it has emphasised that power cuts could be implemented on short notice.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research released a report in August which found load shedding for 2020 had already reached a combined 1383 GW hours, compared to 1352 GW hours during the whole of 2019.