Friday, 5 July 2024: Eskom continues to uphold the ongoing suspension of loadshedding, marking 100 consecutive days since 26 March 2024. This sustained period of stability is a testament to the dedicated efforts of Eskom’s 40 000 employees in implementing the Generation Recovery plan, which began in March 2023. This plan has significantly improved the reliability, efficiency, and availability of our coal generation fleet, benefiting the entire nation.
The last time we experienced such a prolonged suspension was nearly four years ago, between 08 September 2020 and 11 December 2020.
Our operational efficiency continues to surpass expectations, with current unplanned outages averaging at 12 500MW since the start of FY25, and today’s figure recorded at 11 271MW, significantly lower than the winter forecast.
The reduction in unplanned outages has significantly improved the available capacity to 32 816MW. The last time we achieved this level of availability was on 06 August 2021.
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) has seen a decrease to 27.1% for the financial year to date (1 April 2024 to 4 July 2024), improving from 34.9% in the corresponding period last year.
• This reduction in UCLF represents a 7.8.0% improvement in the current financial year (1 April 2024 to 4 July 2024) as compared to the previous year in the same period.
Planned Maintenance
The ongoing planned maintenance of 4 270MW aligns with our winter maintenance strategy, bolstered by short-term maintenance to ensure continuous plant reliability.
Sustained Energy Availability Factor (EAF) improvement
• The year-to-date (1 April 2024 to 4 July 2024) EAF increased to 61.5%. This is a significant 6.94% improvement compared to the same period last year (1 April 2023 to 4 July 2023), where the EAF was 54.56%.
• The weekly EAF has moved from 57.0% at the beginning of the financial year to 65.7% from 1 July to 4 July 2024 an improvement of 8.7%.
• The EAF improvement is primarily due to a drop in the unplanned outages of the generation units which averaged at 12 180MW during the past 7 days.
Continued strategic utilisation of Open-Cycle Gas Turbines:
Our strategic use of peaking stations to effectively manage electricity demand during peak times that includes pumped storage and the Open-Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs), has been key in meeting the heightened winter demand, particularly during evening peaks (from 17:00 to 22:00).
• Our diesel consumption remains under the projected figures for this winter and is considerably lower than the previous year’s usage.
• OCGT usage has remained significantly lower than in the past two years. From 1 April 2024 to 4 July 2024.
• Eskom’s expenditure between 1 April and 4 July on OCGTs was R3.24 billion, generating 471.18GWh approximately 67% (~R6.7billion) less than the R9.96 billion spent last year over the same period for 1 647.87GWh.
• The OCGT load factor for 1 April to 4 July 2024 continued to be much less at 6.30% compared to last year’s figure of 21.29% over the same period.
• The OCGT load factor for 1 July to 4 July 2024 was 6.05%, which is lower when compared to last year’s figure of 21.17% over the same period.
• Eskom’s diesel usage remains below its published winter forecast and year-to-date budget.
A total of about 2 770MW of generating capacity is scheduled to return back to service by Monday, 8 July 2024.
Eskom’s projected evening peak demand for today, Friday, 5 July 2024, is 28 842MW.
Save your transformer and save lives campaign
With the temperatures dropping and the consequent increase in electricity demand, Eskom is facing the recurring challenge of network overloading in certain regions. This issue is largely attributed to illegal connections, vandalism, meter tampering, unauthorized network operations, theft of network equipment, and the purchase of electricity from unlicensed vendors/sellers.
To avert potential dangers to public safety and the risk of network overloading which could lead to load reduction measures at any instance and extended unplanned power outages, Eskom strongly encourages customers to moderate their electricity usage during the suspension of load shedding. It is also imperative that customers ensure their electrical connections are lawful and that they procure electricity solely from authorized 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, 12 July 2024, or promptly communicate any significant changes as soon as they occur.
A news release issued today provides more details on the 100 days of loadshedding suspended milestone.
https://www.eskom.co.za/eskom-reaches-100-days-without-loadshedding-signalling-marked-improvement-in-generation-and-financial-performance/
ENDS
