Eskom has on Friday through a press release, announced that loadshedding will remain suspended until further notice, this comes after 86 consecutive days of no loadshedding from the power utility, citing continuing efforts to preserve the gains it made on its coal fleet.
“The last time South Africa experienced a nearly equivalent extended suspension of loadshedding was in the period between 23 July 2021 and 06 October 2021” reads the press release. Eskom continued to state that their “generation performance continues to surpass the winter forecasts for this year. The current unplanned outages remain at an average of 12 000MW”.
On 26 April 2024, Eskom had forecasted that it would implement and limit loadshedding to stage 2 for the winter months, with unplanned outages being predicated to range from 14 000 MW to 15 500MW and a maximum of 17 000MW at stage 5. This was at the time an improvement from the winter 2023 forecast which predicted unplanned outages ranging from 15 000MW to 16 500MW and a maximum of 18 000MW, a situation that would have seen South Africa being subjected to stage 8 loadshedding.
The winter forecast made public on 26 April 2024, still remains in place, Eskom said. This sustained performance is due to reduction in unplanned outages, planned maintenance, sustained Energy Availability Factor (EAF) and the use of Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs).
From 1 April 2024 to 20 June 2024 the Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) dropped to 27.4% from 35.3% the year prior during the same period, 1 April 2023 to 20 June 2023. That drop represents a 7.9% improvement. The Energy Availability Factor (EAF) also increased to 61.2% in the same period this year, which is an improvement of 7% from the 54% of the previous period last year, 1 April and 20 June 2023.
Eskom has continued to use Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) to manage morning and evening peaks. This use is however significantly lower compared to the previous two years. From 1 April to 2024 to 20 June 2024, Eskom spend R2.71 billion on OCGTs, allowing them to generate 390.05GWh of electricity. This reflects a 67% decrease compared to last year in the same period, with Eskom Spending R8.26 billion to produce 1 354.34GWh.
Eskom plans to return an aggregate of 2 796MW to service by next Monday 24 June 2024.
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