State-owned power utility Eskom warned of the risk of load-shedding on Tuesday night following power constraints due to maintenance and unplanned outages at several of its electricity-generating units.
The power system was “severely constrained”, said Eskom, which supplies more than 90 percent of the nation’s power.
“It’s mainly due to some units being offline, some for maintenance purposes and others because of unplanned outages,” said Eskom’s spokesman Khulu Phasiwe.
Unbuilding the battling Eskom and selling its core assets to steer off bankruptcy may be on the cards for the embattled state utility.
Plans to privatise the power utility emerged after senior executives met last week at a closed executive forum, “Eskom cannot save itself”.
High-ranking officials who spoke to Independent Media on condition of anonymity alluded to major drivers that would result in unbundling Eskom which is running at a loss without revenue to meet its escalating costs.
This week, Eskom confirmed that it was working on a new corporate plan that will assess “if any assets will be sold”.
The state-owned entity (SOE) is R390billion in debt.
Source: IOL
