An article by Ian Kilbride. South Africa has entered a long, winding, dark and dangerous tunnel called the energy crisis, but there is a flickering light at the end of it. The issues confronting us are far broader and deeper than just Eskom and how we tackle them will shape the future trajectory of our country. I believe there are empirical grounds for cautious optimism. Since 2008, Eskom has collapsed from a marginally profitable power utility with an installed capacity of 43, 000 megawatts and a selling price of 19,45 cents per kilowatt hour, to an installed capacity of 47, 000 megawatts at a selling price 127,9 cents per kilowatt hour, while making a loss of R14 billion in 2022. Of the 47,000-megawatt installed capacity, less than 30,000 MW may be available at any one time. The result is that, last year, the country endured over 3, 300 hours without electricity from Eskom. The broader impact of energy scarcity and unreliability translates into lower economic growth and job losses in a country with some of the highest unemployment globally. We are rapidly learning the inconvenient truth that power-cuts affect water supply and sewage treatment, thereby compounding the already unsanitary conditions […]
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