Why Prime Movers’ Reliability Is Critical to Power Uptime

In South Africa, the return of Stage 3 load-shedding in February 2025 underscored the fragility of the national grid. Eskom’s ageing units continued to experience repeated breakdowns, with unplanned outages often exceeding 14,000 MW, well beyond the threshold required to avoid rotational blackouts . With reserve margins consistently strained, even minor equipment failures trigger load-shedding, highlighting how the combination of ageing infrastructure, maintenance backlogs, and rising demand leaves little r ...