Financial Times FT.com

Electricity supplies: Power is too cheap to guarantee supply

By William MacNamara

Published: June 17 2008 01:47 | Last updated: June 17 2008 01:47

South Africa’s electricity supply is hanging by a thread. Since the power grid nearly collapsed in January, revealing a saga of political and corporate failures that had mounted over the course of a decade, the system has stabilised, but it has no margin of reserve.

Any sudden failures at power stations, or surges in demand, could plunge the country into black-outs.

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