Running out of juice

..“Blackouts are still rare events, but they won’t be rare when the system doesn’t have the spare capacity it needs.”

South Africa’s peak demand this winter stood at 33 600MWe (megawatt electrical) from an overall capacity of 38 000MWe, including a 10% safety margin. But, by July 2002, there was already little room to manoeuvre. Peak-time demand was 31 500MWe from a 37 000MWe capacity. The Department of Minerals and Energy’s 2003 Integrated Energy Plan said: “South Africa will be short on capacity by 2005, 2007 unless demand side management [brings down consumer usage] or a new plant is built.”

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