A number of Southern African countries are in the midst of a devastating electricity crisis. Zimbabweans have been subjected to daily power cuts of up to 20 hours a day. In Zambia, load-shedding has just been increased to 12 hours a day. One of Africa’s largest power producers by installed capacity, South Africa is also experiencing electricity generation constraints mainly due to frequent breakdowns at its aging coal power plants. South Africa has an installed electricity generation capacity of over 50,000 MW, but quite often, close to 17,000 MW or even 24,000 MW at times is out of action due to a combination of breakdowns and planned maintenance. This has resulted in Eskom, the national utility company, implementing various stages of load shedding as needed.
