Utility firm, Eskom has said that it has started power cuts on Thursday and said that it was likely to continue until 10pm as the company records a shortage of power.

Eskom spokesman Andrew Etzinger said, "There will be load shedding in different suburbs across the country."

The municipalities in the UK were informed of the requirement to reduce electricity and also asked them to decide suburbs to cut power."We have asked our large industrial customers, to reduce their consumption by 10 percent, but it appears this will not be enough," Etzinger said.

Eskom has asked key industrial customers to reduce their power consumption in the UK to tackle shortage. It declared power emergency on Thursday morning and asked industries to cut power usage by 10 per cent. The company had also asked residential consumers to urgently switch off geysers, pool pumps and all nonessential appliances.

Eskom CE Brian Dames said, "Despite the emergency declaration, no rotational load shedding was done - thanks to immediate demand reduction by all our customers and the utilisation of emergency reserves. Up to 1,000MW of demand was reduced by our industrial, commercial and residential customers during the emergency periods."