Eskom produced more than 35,000MW daily at the end of July — over 3,000MW higher than peak demand.
Eskom’s generation fleet is performing so well that the power utility is placing some of its units on cold reserve due to excess capacity, Sunday TimesEskom head of generation Bheki Nxumalo says generation units are typically switched off for a few days, which helps the power utility save money and resources when capacity dramatically exceeds demand.
“Based on this, planned maintenance of generators is scheduled for periods of lower demand after ensuring there are sufficient operating reserves to cater for short-term generator breakdowns,” Sunday Times quoted Nxumalo as saying. He said the investment required to add that amount of new capacity would be around R100 billion. Fixing their existing power stations was much cheaper.“If you look at the amount of money that was spent, this was a cheaper option from where I’m sitting and where we are at Eskom, to say lets fix the current fleet,” said Nxumalo.
The South African National Energy Development Institute’s Professor Sampson Mamphweli believes load-shedding could be, made possible by an improved energy availability factor, fewer breakdowns, and lessened demand.
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