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| ©Themba Hadebe/AP Photo |
South Africa’s struggling state power utility Eskom has predicted a harsh winter starting in June, warning that it may have to increase electricity cuts to an unprecedented level amid the country’s worst-ever power crisis. Many households and businesses in Africa’s most industrialised economy are already facing scheduled electricity outages – or load shedding – of more than 10 hours a day, primarily due to breakdowns in Eskom’s ailing fleet of coal power stations.
South Africa’s power crisis has deepened over the past year, taking a heavy toll on several sectors and threatening price rises. The crippling power cuts have had a severe effect on South Africa’s economy, reducing its gross domestic product by about 5 per cent in 2022, according to Eskom.
Separately, a government official told Reuters news agency on Thursday that South Africa will auction at least ten new onshore blocks for shale gas exploration in the environmentally sensitive Karoo region. South Africa’s first competitive auction for oil and gas resources, expected in 2024 or 2025 once legislation making provision for the bid round is passed, is expected to be held as the country eyes alternative energy sources to ease the power crisis.
They are potentially looking at a minimum of about ten shale gas blocks in the Karoo that will be released through competitive bidding, Bongani Sayidini, chief operating officer at the Petroleum Agency of South Africa, said. Even five tcf would be enough for a 1,000 megawatt to 2,000 MW gas-fired power plant to supply electricity for up to 30 years, the Academy of Science of South Africa said in its Karoo shale gas action plan released last year.
Fracking in the Karoo basin, a vast area covering more than half of South Africa’s land surface, has been shelved for a decade because of resistance from environmental activists and farmers and regulatory uncertainty.
