As of last week, most Eskom employees have returned to work, despite ongoing protests over wage negotiations. However, the company’s generation capacity has not yet improved.
In response to inquiries sent to Eskom via e-mail, the company stated that “the vast majority of personnel are reporting for duty.”
On Monday, there were still “sporadic rallies” and demonstrations, and there was a more significant amount of generation capacity unavailable than in the previous days.
Last week’s wage discussions between labour organizations and Eskom became a stalemate, followed by demonstrations at the majority of Eskom’s coal-fired power facilities, which are responsible for producing the majority of South Africa’s electricity.
The utility company is continuing to build up emergency reserves, so they have decided to extend the power interruptions that were implemented to preserve the grid from a total collapse until Wednesday.
Eskom estimates that the system had approximately 22.5 GW of new generation capacity at lunchtime on Monday. During the last three days, this number moved between 20GW and 21.2GW, which shows that performance is worsening.
It is against the law to engage in strike action at Eskom since the provision of electricity is regarded as an essential service.
Eskom has stated that disciplinary procedures will begin once the current crisis has been brought under control. At this point, all our energy and resources are being put toward ensuring that the lights don’t go out.
The developments have made Eskom’s already difficult task of meeting energy demand even more difficult, as the company’s stations are generally outdated and unreliable, and even its newest plants are prone to problems.