Eskom, South Africa's power utility, is confident of a load shedding-free summer season due to significant improvements in its generation capacity and reduced unplanned outages.
Since March 26, 2024, South Africa 's power utility Eskom has gone over nine months—275 consecutive days—without implementing load shedding . Eskom is using the December summer break to ramp up planned maintenance, with an average of 8,000 MW, as many industries shut down for the period. Eskom ’s Daphne Mokwena said if they compare with this time in 2024, their recovery efforts have reduced unplanned electricity outages by more than 8%. Additionally, there was a 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. In August, Eskom shared its summer outlook for the period from September 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, predicting a likely scenario of a loadshedding-free summer, including the festive season, due to structural generation improvements. Eskom says its year-to-date unplanned outages average is 11,900MW, which it says is 1,100MW less than the 2024 summer base case of 13,000MW. Over the past week, the average total unplanned outages have been at 11,438MW, an improvement from the 13,980MW recorded during the same period last year, representing a reduction of 2,542MW. Eskom’s Energy Availability Factor (EAF) averaged 56.23% last week due to increased maintenance, with top stations, including all peaking units, hitting 70% EAF. The year-to-date EAF stands at 62.37%. With 26,906MW of available capacity and a peak demand forecast of 22,474MW, Eskom says it is on track to meet demand. Four units totaling 1,735MW are on cold reserve, and an additional 2,950MW is expected to return by Monday evening
Eskom Load Shedding South Africa Energy Summer Outlook
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