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Johannesburg - FIFA and power utility Eskom are confident South Africa will be able to host a blackout-free World Cup next year although concerns about the country's strained electricity supply persist.
Eskom has struggled to meet rising power demand in Africa's biggest economy since early last year when the grid nearly collapsed, owing to a lack of investment in new generation capacity, but said it would not fail next year.
"Our intention is to make sure that the lights stay on ... at this point in time we are confident that we will be able to meet the country's requirements," Sanjay Bhana, Eskom's 2010 project manager, said in a South African National Energy Association (SANEA) lecture in Johannesburg this week.
Bhana said the utility estimates South Africa's demand in 2010 to peak at just short of 38 000 MW, up from a peak demand of less than 36,000 MW so far this year. About 450 000 visitors are expected to attend the tournament.
He said the current capacity, including all emergency supply in the form of diesel generators, was adequate to cover that.
Another Eskom official said that despite the utility's already strained balance sheet, it could run the generators "for weeks" to boost supply if needed.
Demand in the country has dropped significantly as smelters and other industry shut down parts of their operations given the global financial crisis, but has already risen back to the highs seen last year as industry resumes production.
The World Cup will be held during South Africa's winter, its most power-intensive season, but analysts do not expect the event to strain the system, with limited additional demand seen.
"An additional 450 000 people will certainly have an impact on demand but they will not be involved in any industrial activity so impact should be low," said energy analyst Cornelis van der Waal at Frost & Sullivan.
The broadcasting of each game will be run by diesel generators to avoid any possible disruptions.
"Based on the experience and previous events in South Africa we feel the matter of blackouts is in hand," FIFA said in an emailed response to questions.
Most stadiums, including lighting of the pitch, will be supplied from the national grid, with a back up from diesel generators, although in individual cases it might be the other way around, said Phumlani Moholi, chief for IT and technology at the local organising committee.
South Africa has hosted other major sporting events, and the organisers also looked at what has been done during soccer competitions in other countries.
Viewers of Germany's Euro 2008 semi-final win over Turkey were deprived of nearly 20 minutes of the game after the broadcasting collapsed and the back-up supply did not kick in.
Moholi said stadiums would be equipped with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to feed equipment until back-up power starts.
"I'm very confident that there will be no blackouts... we will have an electrician sitting at every light mast monitoring the currents, we test the voltage every day and monitor them for any irregularities, we have Eskom, local authorities and a whole team of electricians on standby... there is no risk," he said. Eskom said it would secure a buffer of 2 000 MW to ensure a blackout-free event and enlisted the help of its neighbours to have an additional 700 MW on stand-by.
"I will probably be the most nervous person during each game... but we should be OK," Moholi said.
