Mines in South Africa, the largest platinum producer, will be able to work around the power utility’s plans for almost daily cuts because they have had to adapt to less supply since 2008, the biggest mines lobby has said.

Producers have borne the brunt of shortages since January of that year, when many operations were idled for five straight days to prevent a total collapse of the grid. They and other large industrial users were the first customers Eskom Holdings asked to reduce demand, and have had to adjust to the utility’s insufficient capacity, which has worsened since.

Eskom, which provides about 95% of the country’s power, foresees a strong risk of almost daily rolling blackouts across its network until the end of April. It had 15 days of rolling blackouts last year, the first since 2008, and did the same on January 9 as its ageing plants struggle to meet demand in Africa’s second-biggest economy. New capacity has been delayed by construction issues and labour unrest.

“It’s going to have an impact, it is not necessarily business as usual, but the point is the country at a broader level is now carrying the burdens,” says Chamber of Mines COO Roger Baxter. “The greater shame is that not having sufficient electricity supply has actually curtailed the development of further mines.”

Eskom first asks its largest users to reduce consumption by 10% prior to starting rolling blackouts. It requires as much as 5 000 MW of capacity daily to cover the gap created by planned maintenance on generation plants until at least the end of April.

The largest industrial users have done much to adjust their operations through cogeneration projects and power efficiency programmes, says Shaun Nel, spokesperson for the Energy Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa, whose members include the local units of BHP Billiton and ArcelorMittal.

“Any time there are capacity constraints, it affects productivity, but the reality of the situation is we’ve been dealing with this since 2008,” Nel says. “These are not extraordinary circumstances.”

Sibanye Gold, the nation’s largest bullion producer, is unlikely to deepen its mines due to reliability of supply, says CEO Neal Froneman.

The largest users can be required to reduce their total consumption by as much as 20%, says Johan Theron, a spokesperson for Impala Platinum Holdings, the world’s second-largest producer of the metal.

The company will usually first switch off its smelters, followed by milling plants before it closes underground mining operations, Theron says. The producer’s demand from the national power grid is 10% lower than what it was in 2008.

“You will always try to keep underground running for as long as possible,” he says. “The smelters can always make up for lost time at a later stage when the power is restored.”