Heavy weather disrupts electricity supply in South Africa

13 August 2012 – South Africa’s national electricity supply utility Eskom reported on August the 9th that it had been working around the clock to restore power supply to customers in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Parts of those provinces were left without electricity during part of that week due to the severe weather conditions. Five transmission lines in KwaZulu-Natal were damaged, resulting in disruptions of service.

The cold weather in South Africa, which brought rare snowfalls to Johannesburg during parts of that week, resulted in increased electricity usage nationwide, and the utility increased its evening peak forecasts by 500 MW as a result.

However, in part due to a public holiday, peak demands did not reach the high for the year which was 35,865 MW on 11th June 2012. Eskom reports that peak demand of 34,564 MW on Wednesday the 8th of August, the day prior to a national holiday, was met by available capacity of 37,926 MW.