South Africa is facing more power cuts that could damage the economy.

The blackouts are expected to continue for years to come because of the country’s age old infrastructure that is heavily reliant on coal stations to provide most of its power.

Electricity suppliers Eskom who provide 95% of the country’s electricity introduced further load shedding to cope with demand.

Load shedding is where power is cut when there is not enough electricity to meet demand so that the grid does not collapse.

Data released by Statistics South Africa show that electricity production has dropped by 1.4% in the first 11 months of November 2014 and continues to decrease by 2% each year.

Dennis Dykes, Chief Economist at Nedbank told AFP: “It is a real constraint on the economy.”