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South Africa - ESKOM – Warning from US government on total ESKOM grid collapse

• OSAC, the US Overseas Security Advisory Council, a US government body has warned South Africa’s power grid is close to collapse.
• The situation could see industry and communications taken down as the level of power outages becomes unmanageable for the transmission network.
• Communications group ‘MyBroadband’ estimates that fibre networks will be able to operate for some time, provided data centres and Internet exchange points can remain powered.
• Batteries at cellular sites will start running empty after 4–6 hours, severely impacting mobile communications.
• Water reserves will also be severely impacted with no no sewage pumps according to the US Government warning leading to potential cholera outbreaks.
• Data centres and power stations could run out of water exacerbating the problem.
• South African security systems and structures would also become unreliable indicating a potential slide into anarchy.
• South African’s appreciate that disaster management plans can not rely on ESKOM or other government infrastructure.
• While the risk of a total blackout is said to remain unlikely, the risk has increased due to how unreliable Eskom’s coal fleet has become lengthening periods load shedding.
• The consequences of a total blackout would also be devastating, making it worth preparing for.
• A total blackout would require 6–14 days at best to restart the power grid according to officials.
• Restarting a single unit at Medupi would require a 60-MW generator indicating the scale of the problem.