Former Eskom CEO says probability of total blackout is low

JOHANNESBURG - Increased and higher stages of rolling blackouts are fueling fears of a total blackout but embattled power utility, Eskom has come out to allay those fears.

It insists a total blackout is highly unlikely.

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Former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga agreed, saying, "first of all, let's understand and appreciate the people who work at what is called the system operator, highly qualified people, experienced, and for a number of years now, they've been doing load shedding and managing the grid in such a way that we don't have uncontrolled collapse of the grid, and also understanding that load shedding is sort at the initial stages of managing the grid."

"There's still what is called levels of contingencies, that if for instance we go lower in terms of the supply and the frequency goes down, there are certain systems that are embedded in the power system that will automatically kick in order to protect what is called protecting the frequency, so on that basis, I agree that the probability of a blackout is still quite low, but the fact that we're doing load shedding means you know, we're managing the risk."

"So I'm still comfortable that the blackout probability is still quite low."