Eskom's Cutoffs Ease Fractionally

FILE - Thandiwe Sithole studies by a candle while her grandmother Phumzile Sithole looks on during one of frequent power outages from South African utility Eskom caused by its aging coal-fired plants, in Soweto, South Africa. Take 3.9.2022

South African utility Eskom said on Monday that power outages were reduced to "Stage 5" at midnight local time (2200 GMT) from "Stage 6", as some generating units had returned to service.

Eskom said that planned outages represented 5,411 megawatts (MW) of its roughly 46,000 MW nominal capacity and breakdowns 16,326 MW.

"Overnight we returned a unit each at Camden, Kriel, Kusile and Kendal (power stations) but unfortunately had to take off a unit at Duvha which developed a boiler tube leak," the company said in a statement.

The electricity situation in South Africa is the reason given by President Cyril Ramaphosa for not remaining in the Untied States to address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday as scheduled.