- Expert Ted Blom has revealed that the country is one small mistake away from facing a total blackout

- Blom also revealed that it is a daily struggle to keep the country's lights on

- Should this happen the mistake could take weeks, even months to rectify and the outcome would be disastrous for the country

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Loadshedding has been a hot topic with nationwide restrictions in place. The situation is worse than what people have been led to believe with the country a hairline away from being plunged into darkness.

Briefly.co.za reported yesterday that Ted Blom, an expert on energy, spoke to Martin Bester in an interview for Jacaranda FM. The expert had blamed mismanagement at Eskom for failing to address the coal shortage he had predicted in the early 2000s.

Blom revealed that it is a daily fight to keep the country powered and that the possibility of a total blackout is real and could happen in the near future. When answering a question from a listener on this subject he answered:

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“That’s a daily fight. It’s done by Simmerpan Eskom control centre in Germiston. If they are asleep for one second of the day and the demand exceeds the supply, it will be like putting a spanner in your bicycle wheel. The whole system will just collapse.”

Should this happen the mistake would take weeks, if not months to fix and the outcome for the country would be disastrous.

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Another listener had been concerned about rumours that Koeberg was not running all reactors due to maintenance being carried out and Blom had confirmed this saying:

“Koeberg is only on one reactor at the moment. It has two. The one that is out of service is […] being refuelled at the moment and will probably come online again within the next 30 days if nothing goes wrong.”

Blom has suggested that a forensic audit should be carried out at Eskom to “highlight and quantify the extent of the corruption and mismanagement and poor governance at Eskom.”

He estimated the corruption at the power entity has cost taxpayers about R1.4 trillion over the course of the last ten years. Blom had based his estimate on the excessive tariff increases and the funds borrowed by Eskom.

Going forward, Blom suggests that a forensic audit be done at Eskom to “highlight and quantify the extent of the corruption and mismanagement and poor governance at Eskom.”

The expert also said that it was possible for a competitor to dominate soon but that the grid and output will not be an easy obstacle to overcome. Blom had previously advised Eskom to split into two separate entities, GridCo and GenCo but his application had been halted.

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