Eskom: risk of load-shedding to be 'significantly' reduced by September 2021

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says the power utility will have “significantly” reduced the risk of load-shedding by September 2021.

He revealed this during a briefing on Eskom’s state of the system, held in Johannesburg on Thursday.

He said Eskom had not implemented rotational load-shedding since September as it had managed to meet SA’s electricity needs with minimal use of open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs).

However, De Ruyter cautioned that more work still needed to be done to achieve operational stability and restore the security of energy supply for the country.

“Over the past eight months, we redoubled our efforts and commenced with the implementation of modifications to repairs to the design defects at Medupi and Kusile power stations, which is yielding the desired results and increasing available capacity for the system,” he said.

“We also continue to implement our turnaround plan which is geared towards improving Eskom’s performance to achieve sustainability and guarantee security of electricity supply.”

Eskom said it had focused on conducting reliability maintenance on the rest of the power stations, which was aimed at improving the performance of its ageing generation fleet.

“The reliability maintenance is in full swing, and the benefits of the work will start being felt by April 2021.

“We envision that we will have significantly reduced, but not eliminated, the risk of load-shedding by September next year,” De Ruyter said.

Exceeding maintenance targets

Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said while the energy availability factor (EAF) was lower compared to the same period last year, the unplanned capability loss factor (UCLF), commonly referred to as unplanned generation outages, had improved slightly, with a reduction from 23% to 19%.

“We also managed to perform 2% more planned maintenance against the 8% target, while striking a delicate balance between plant maintenance and keeping the lights on, working within the limitations imposed on us by the national lockdown and strict compliance with Covid-19 guidelines during the last five months,” said Oberholzer.

According to acting group executive for generation, Rhulani Mathebula, the nine-point generation recovery plan is progressing well, with notable achievements on several fronts.

“Through the implementation of this plan, we have returned to service six of the seven units on long-term outages to date. Furthermore, we have also filled 1,384 or 75% of the 1,852 critical positions identified under this plan as at April this year.”

In its attempt to improve transparency and give more certainty to the public, Eskom said it had last month launched a data portal on its website, which provides information on the performance of the power system.

The portal will, according to group executive for transmission Segomoco Scheepers, give real-time performance of the generation infrastructure.

“Last week Eskom further introduced a facility that allows downloads of raw performance data for the past financial year and the year-to-date information. The next phase of the project will allow the downloading of five years’ worth of raw data,” added Scheepers.

The power utility also revealed that as at October 14, 29 Eskom employees had lost their lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It noted a recovery rate of 94%, with 1,864 of the 1,993 total confirmed cases for Eskom and its contractors having fully recovered and being able to perform their duties.

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