Restore the power grid | SA's power crisis escalates

JOHANNESBURG - As winter looms, energy experts predict that Eskom will need to impose more stringent power cuts.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has also suggested that preparations are underway to address this.

READ: SA's electricity crisis | The impact of blackouts on hospitals

Stage 6 power cuts remain in effect indefinitely.

Dr Sean Muller from the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Study, says if the power utility imposes stringent blackouts, it will harm the already strained economy.

He said, "the problem with Eskom story is how far moving it is, it wasn't so long ago that people were saying well it might be well compromising to have Stage 2 power cuts indefinitely so Eskom could do sustained maintenance it needs to get the system to a level of reliability that would avoid these higher stages of power cuts."

"Now all of a sudden we talking about stage 6 power cuts indefinitely and the possibility of these higher stages - [Stage] 10 and [Stage] 16 and so forth."

"It isn't looking very rosy for the winter period."