Southern Africa Probes Power Outage That Affected Four Countries

(Bloomberg) -- Power companies in southern Africa are investigating the cause of an “unprecedented” system disruption that affected four countries.

Zambia suffered a nationwide blackout on Nov. 6, while neighboring Zimbabwe reported on Nov. 8 that a technical fault at one of its main power plants had curbed supply. The disturbance also resulted in a loss of connection between South Africa and Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa hydropower plant, said Stephen Dihwa, executive director of the Southern African Power Pool. 

“There was a systems disturbance which occurred over the weekend and this was unprecedented,” Dihwa said by phone on Tuesday. “This is something which has never happened in the region before and are still investigating to know where it originated from.”

The SAPP pool is a 12-member organization formed by energy utilities in southern Africa that operate a common power grid and market for electricity.

South Africa is implementing a third week of rolling blackouts due to generation-capacity shortages and after Zambia’s power output decreased at the weekend. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter is scheduled to hold a media briefing later on Tuesday to provide an update on the blackouts. 

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