Eskom’s worst case scenario: SA could face ‘three-week blackout’
For those of you wondering if things can get any worse in Eskom's current battle against load shedding - the answer is a resounding 'yes'.
Eskom have published details about the post-load shedding process, and what would happen if things like targeted power cuts failed to prevent a major disaster. The firm has revealed that, in the event of grid collapse, South Africa would be left without electricity ‘for weeks’.
In Eskom’s worst case scenario, Stage 8 seems like a luxury…
The rather gloomy update was published earlier on Tuesday. South Africa’s worst-performing utility has currently got the country at Stage 5 of load shedding, down from a peak of Stage 6 over the weekend. Some, however, suspect that Eskom secretly went even further.
The only planned stages of load shedding that Eskom has never formally declared are Stage 7 and Stage 8. This would create outages of more than 12 hours a day for millions of South Africans. This seems like a nightmare, but unfortunately, this wouldn’t be the worst-case scenario.
What happens if load shedding fails?
Eskom has previously explained, in great detail, how load shedding is actually enforced to prevent a total grid collapse. But what would happen if a painstaking round of Stage 8 cuts didn’t go far enough? At this point, it is said, South Africa would be exposed to a ‘total blackout’.
In an infographic shared by the firm, they reveal that there’d be no time to prepare the country for a long-lasting blackout, and coming back from this point would take a vast amount of time. Eskom warn that a recovery from this lowest possible ebb ‘would take a few weeks’:
“If preventative measures like load shedding prove to be insufficient, the national grid will collapse. A blackout is unforeseen, and therefore, the system operator would not be able to make any announcements in advance.”
A national blackout will have massive implications, and every effort is made to stop this from happening. Depending on the nature of the emergency, it could take a few weeks for the grid to completely recover from a blackout.” | Eskom
- Eskom explain the load shedding process – and beyond – in this five-step guide:
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