Eskom refutes claims of an imminent collapse of the national electricity grid
16 May 2023
Eskom notes with concern various social media posts claiming that the country will soon experience a blackout or collapse of the national electricity grid. Eskom refutes these claims and would like to assure South Africans that there are measures in place to avoid the collapse of the power system. Loadshedding is one of these mechanisms.
The risk of a national blackout, while inherent to the operation of a large power system, has an extremely low likelihood of materialising given the implementation of a number of control measures, including loadshedding.
The grid is by no means at a higher or imminent risk of a collapse and it would take an unforeseen and sudden sequence of events that results in a cascading collapse of the transmission or generation system, leading to a complete loss of supply across the country.
Eskom has robust contingency plans in place to deal with such an eventuality.