South Africa faces power interruptions as its state-owned utility, Eskom, announced a power emergency asking industrial users to slash consumption by 10% on February 20 from 2 pm until 9 pm. Residential consumers are asked on to switch off geysers, air conditioners, lights, and non-essential appliances from 5 pm to 9 pm.
Four generating units failed on February 20 during maintenance forcing the utility to implement measures from the declaration of emergency protocol that came into effect in 2008. Eskom said in a release, “While we will make every effort to avoid load shedding, we are hopeful that by applying these measures, coupled with support from all electricity consumers, we will achieve the required load reduction necessary to protect the national grid.”
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