Eskom today announced that loadshedding continues to remain suspended until further notice, due to the continued improvement in the reliability and stability of the generation coal fleet.
Loadshedding has currently been suspended for 79 consecutive days. The last time South Africa experienced such an extended suspension of loadshedding was the period between 23 July 2021 and 06 October 2021.
Our generation performance continues to surpass the winter forecast for this year. The current unplanned outages average is at 12 000MW.
Managing morning and evening peaks
With the ongoing colder weather, Eskom will strategically utilise, as planned in its winter outlook, its peaking stations, including the Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs), to meet the high electricity demand during the morning and evening peaks. Eskom’s diesel usage remains below its published winter forecast and year-to-date budget. The usage continues to be significantly lower compared to the same period last year.
The winter forecast, published on 26 April 2024, anticipated a likely scenario of unplanned outages at 15 500MW and load shedding limited to Stage 2 – this remains in force.
Key Performance Highlights:
Reduction in unplanned outages:
- The Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) decreased to 27.69% in the financial year to date (1 April 2024 to 13 June 2024), a reduction from 35.5% recorded in the same period last year (1 April 2023 to 13 June 2023).
- This reduction in UCLF represents a 7.81% improvement in the current financial year (1 April 2024 to 13 June 2024) as compared to the previous year in the same period.
Planned Maintenance
- The current planned maintenance of 4 986MW is consistent with our maintenance plans for this winter.
Sustained Energy Availability Factor (EAF) improvement
- The year-to-date (1 April 2024 to 13 June 2024) EAF increased to 61.29%. This is a significant 7.59% improvement compared to the same period last year (1 April 2023 to 13 June 2023), where the EAF was 53.7%.
- The weekly EAF has moved from 57.0% at the beginning of the financial year to 65.0% from 1 April to 13 June 2024.
- The EAF improvement is primarily due to a drop in the unplanned outages of the generation units which averaged at 11 700MW during the past 7 days.
Strategic utilisation of Open-Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs)
- OCGT usage continues to be significantly lower compared to the same period for the past two years.
- From 1 April 2024 to 13 June 2024, Eskom spent R2.29 billion on OCGTs, producing 328.43GWh. This is about 74% less than from 1 April 2023 to 13 June 2023 when R7.84 billion was spent to produce 1 280.52GWh.
- The OCGT load factor for 1 April to 13 June 2024 continued to be much less at 5.42% compared to last year’s figure of 21.12% over the same period.
- The OCGT load factor for 1 June to 13 June 2024 was 9.71%, which is marginally higher when compared to last year’s figure of 8.78% over the same period.
A total of 2 290MW of generating capacity is planned to be returned to service by Monday 17 June 2024.
Eskom’s evening peak demand tonight, Friday 14 June 2024, is 30 312MW.
Preventing network overloading and risk to life
As demand for electricity rises and temperatures fall with the onset of winter, the issue of network overloading has resurfaced in some areas due to electricity theft. This theft encompasses a wide range of activities, including illegal connections, network equipment theft, vandalism, meter bypasses, tampering, unauthorized network operations, and purchasing electricity from illegal vendors.
To prevent risk to life and network overloading, which may result in load reduction, Eskom urges customers to reduce their consumption while load shedding is suspended. Additionally, customers should ensure that their electricity is legally connected and purchased from authorized vendors and report any illegal activities to the Eskom Crime Line at 0800 112 722.
Eskom will provide an update next Friday 21 June 2024 or promptly communicate any significant changes as soon as they occur.
