UPDATE 1-South Africa's Eskom declares new power emergency

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JOHANNESBURG, March 6 (Reuters) - South African state power utility Eskom Href="NewsSearch">ESCJ.UL declared a fresh power emergency on Thursday and said there was a "strong possibility" it would have to implement rolling blackouts.

Spokesman Andrew Etzinger told Reuters the grid had come under strain because of heavy rains over power stations in eastern Mpumalanga province and big industrial customers have been asked to cut their usage by 10 percent.

The country's mining and smelting industries are very power intensive and BHP Billiton BLT.L is Eskom's single biggest customer. Etzinger said the emergency would likely be lifted at 2100 local time (1900 GMT).

It is the third time the utility has declared an emergency in the past two weeks, raising concerns about its ability to keep the lights on in Africa's largest economy as it scrambles to bring new power plants online.

Rolling blackouts, known locally as 'load-shedding', caused misery for millions of South Africans during a severe power crunch in 2008 which cost the economy billions of dollars in lost output.

"In the event that load shedding becomes necessary, Eskom will use the published load shedding schedules which are available on the Eskom website (http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za/), " the utility said in a statement.

(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; and Ed Stoddard)

((Edward.Stoddard@thomsonreuters.com)(+27 11 775 3160)(Reuters Messaging: edward.stoddard.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: SAFRICA ESKOM/