by gavin du venage, south african editor
As of press time, South Africa had little more than 30 days of coal stocks as the country goes into winter peak demand, a situation complicated by the legal troubles of one of its largest producers. Supplies at six power stations in the Mpumalanga province, where most of the generation occurs, are especially low, raising the possibility of load shedding-controlled blackouts hitting the country. National utility Eskom regularly has to run emergency diesel turbines to meet heightened demand, costing millions of dollars in fuel each month.
