South Africa’s Eskom could buy less power from wind farms during lockdown

JOHANNESBURG: South African state utility Eskom has told independent wind farms that it could buy less of their power in the coming days, as electricity demand has plummeted during a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

Eskom, which is mired in a financial crisis and has struggled to keep the lights on in the past year, said on Tuesday that power demand had dropped by more than 7,500 megawatts since the lockdown started on Friday and that it had taken offline some of its own generators.