- South Africans will only be lucky this year because of the World Cup event, to have their lights on throughout the winter season. But, come next year, consumers are warned that supply will be very tight.
The power utility company Eskom has reported to parliament that despite the recent grant of a tariff increase, the company will be working under extreme pressure to upgrade and improve its capacity in the years following the World Cup soccer event.
The company’s management revealed yesterday in a parliamentary session that it would do everything in its power to avoid unnecessary power cuts during the rebuilding period.
"The power supply is going to be extremely tight from 2013 and 2014 until we have baseload power stations coming in," the company representative was quoted telling the parliamentary committee, further adding: "It is very important that as a country we work together to prevent any type of power interruptions."
Eskom, which is almost the monopoly provider of electricity in South Africa, has in recent years come under fire for its inability to cope with the demand across the sectors of the country. Load-shedding in 2008/09 even forced the manufacturing and mining sectors to decrease their production as they had to oblige with the supply capacity of electricity.
Currently, commercial farmers are already crying foul, saying with natural disaster that hit the last cropping season, increased tariffs would further mount stress on the country’s build to the reserves.
Eskom has been granted a 24.8 percent electricity tariff hike this year, with further increases of 25.8 percent and 25.9 percent for the following two years. The company was initially asking for a 35 percent hike.
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