South Africa’s power utility company – Eskom – has sustained its commitment to providing reliable electricity to South Africans for the past nine months since March 26, 2024.
There has been no load-shedding for 275 consecutive days.
This achievement gives credence to Eskom’s dedication to addressing the country’s energy challenges through its investment in the Generation Recovery Plan and enhanced maintenance protocols.
In a statement, Eskom said it continues to utilise the December summer break to increase planned maintenance activities to further improve the reliability of its generation fleet as many industries have shut down for this period, with maintenance averaging at 8000MW.
“The recovery plan significantly improved operational performance, particularly by reducing unplanned outages by -8.1% compared to the same period last year,” the company said.
It said this recovery plan had resulted in year-on-year diesel savings of R16.20 billion, which is about 65.1% less than the R24.89 billion spent during the same period last year.
“The company’s year-to-date unplanned outages average is 11900MW, which is 1100MW less than our 2024 summer base case of 13000MW,” the statement added.
Eskom’s Energy Availability Factor (EAF) averaged 56.23% over the past week due to increased planned maintenance, with top-performing stations, including all peaking stations, achieving an average EAF of 70% and above.
Five other power stations recorded EAFS above 60%.
The year-to-date EAF is at 62.37%
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Discover more from Energy News Africa
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.