Loadshedding remains suspended, with Eskom delivering 156 consecutive days of uninterrupted power supply since 26 March 2024. Eskom has maintained a constant electricity supply throughout the 122-day winter period, and no loadshedding has been implemented since the start of its current financial year on 1 April 2024.
Eskom announced on Monday 26 August its outlook for the summer period, 1 September 2024 to 31 March 2025, that detailed a likely scenario of a loadshedding-free summer outlook due to structural generation improvements. Further details can be found here: Summer Outlook and business operations update.
Eskom maintained an average Energy Availability Factor (EAF) of 67% over the past seven days, with the best-performing stations – Kusile, Kendal, Matimba, Medupi, Matla and the peaking stations –sustaining an EAF of above 70%. Additionally, the three power stations that have achieved an EAF above 60% in past week sustained this improvement. This is due to the continued benefits of accelerating and executing planned maintenance, partnering with the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and the dedication of power station managers and their teams.
Eskom’s operational efficiency continues to surpass its winter expectations, with current unplanned outages averaging between 9 800MW and 11 300MW over the past seven days. Today’s figure is 9 571MW, which is 5 929MW lower than the winter 2024 forecast. This results in an available generation capacity of 30 877MW, while today’s evening peak forecast for 30 August 2024 is 26 852MW.
Key Performance Highlights:
Reduction in unplanned outages:
The Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) continues to be on a downward trend at 25.6% for the financial year to date (01 April 2024 to 29 August 2024), improving from 34.6% in the corresponding period last year.
This reduction in UCLF represents a ~9% improvement compared to the same period last year.
Unplanned outages of the generation units averaged 10 578MW during the past seven days, compared to 15 921MW in the corresponding week last year.
Planned Maintenance:
Ongoing planned maintenance is at 5 983MW, aligning with our winter maintenance strategy and bolstered by short-term maintenance to ensure continuous plant reliability.
Sustained Energy Availability Factor (EAF) improvement:
The year-to-date (01 April 2024 to 29 August 2024) EAF is at 63.6%, a significant improvement of ~8.2% compared to the same period last year (55.4%).
The weekly EAF has improved from 57.0% at the beginning of the financial year to 65.7% from 26 August to 29 August 2024, an improvement of 8.7%.
This improvement is primarily due to a drop in unplanned outages (UCLF and OCLF) of the generation units.
Continued strategic utilisation of Open-Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs):
Our strategic use of peaking stations, including pumped storage and OCGTs, remains key in managing electricity demand during peak times, particularly during evening peaks (17:00 to 22:00).
Diesel consumption remains significantly below projected figures for this winter and is considerably lower than the past two years.
Eskom’s expenditure on OCGTs between 01 April and 29 August 2024 was R3.62 billion, generating 530.01GWh, approximately 75% (R11.08 billion) less than the R14.70 billion spent last year over the same period for 2 460.42GWh.
The OCGT load factor for 01 April to 29 August 2024 was 4.28%, compared to last year’s figure of 19.89%.
The OCGT load factor for 01 August to 29 August 2024 was 1.55%, significantly lower than last year’s figure of 14.53%.
Diesel usage remains below the published winter forecast and year-to-date budget.
A total of approximately 3 400MW of generating capacity is scheduled to return to service by Monday, 02 September 2024.
‘Save Your Transformers, Save Lives’ campaign
While loadshedding remains suspended, Eskom continues to face network overloading issues in certain local areas due to illegal connections, vandalism, meter tampering, unauthorised network operations, theft of network equipment, and purchasing electricity from unlicensed vendors.
To prevent public safety hazards and the risk of network overloading which can lead to load reduction measures and extended unplanned power outages, Eskom strongly urges customers to avoid illegal connections, as this can negatively impact the entire local community. It is also essential for customers to ensure they purchase electricity only from authorised vendors.
Eskom implores the public to play an active role in safeguarding the integrity of the power network by reporting any illegal activities to the Eskom Crime Line at 0800 112 722 or via WhatsApp at 081 333 3323.
We will provide an update next Friday, 6 September 2024, or promptly communicate any significant changes as soon as they occur.
