With South Africa enduring record power outages, the government has given assurances that the electricity grid won’t be allowed to collapse. Yet increasing numbers of businesses are preparing for that very eventuality.
Mining and telecommunications companies, retailers and private hospitals are spending millions of rand on batteries, solar panels and generators to safeguard their operations as the electricity supply from state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. grows increasingly unreliable.
A total grid collapse isn’t “highly probable, but you have to plan for that,” Ralph Mupita, chief executive officer of MTN Group Ltd., Africa’s largest wireless carrier, said at an investor presentation this week.Eskom protects the system from collapse by implementing rotational power cuts and reducing supply to industrial customers.
It cites the experience of Venezuela, whose economy was crippled by an extended blackout in 2019, as the closest example of what South Africa could expect. It also anticipates fuel shortages, which would have a knock-on effect on transport and industry, as well as on hospitals, laboratories and morgues that rely on backup generators.
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