State-owned electricity producer Eskom has reported that demand dropped by more than 6 000 MW on the afternoon of March 26 as businesses shut in anticipation of the start of the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown. The utility also indicated that a further reduction in demand was anticipated for the 21-day period and that it did not, therefore, expect to implement load-shedding during the lockdown. The message was in line with Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s statement of March 25, in which he indicated that the risk of load-shedding would be low during the lockdown, owing to the fall in demand from energy intensive firms. Mantashe said mining operations in South Africa would be “scaled down significantly” and that, while refineries and smelters that could not easily be switched off would be allowed to operate, they would continue at reduced levels, using stockpiled ores.
