South Africa to extend 6,000 megawatt power cuts indefinitely

South Africa’s beleaguered power utility will extend 6,000 megawatt of power cuts for the foreseeable future as it struggles to revive its aging coal-fired power plants.

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. earlier on Sunday began what it calls Stage-6 power cuts after generation units tripped at the Kusile and Kriel power stations. That’s sufficient energy to supply almost 4 million South African homes. The utility started withdrawing 6,000 megawatts from the grid in June. That was the first time since 2019.

The ongoing blackouts — the worst year on record — were a major contributor to the economy’s 0.7% contraction in the second quarter. Severe outages also pose a safety risk to workers in deep-level mines and hurts manufacturing across Africa’s most-industrialized nation. Eskom has had to resort to what’s locally known as load shedding for eight straight months.