SA may enjoy bright Christmas due to ‘exceptionally good performance’ of Eskom units

Electricity minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has praised the “exceptionally good performance” of Eskom's units as South Africa looks set to enjoy another Christmas without load-shedding.

Ramokgopa provided an update on the implementation of the energy action plan at his weekly briefing on Thursday.

South Africa has enjoyed a full week without load-shedding after Eskom suspended it last week Thursday due to “consistent improvement in available generating capacity”.

Ramokgopa provided an overview of the performance of the units over the past 14 days, from December 11-21.

Eskom's energy availability factor is 55.4% year to date. 

“During this period, we've seen an exceptionally good performance by these units outside the issues of reduced demand. What we've seen is that the system has been healthy.

“The problem we have is that the system is healthy in periods. So what we want to achieve is to ensure that we maintain that consistency, that the system remains healthy,” he said.

The minister also provided an update on the available capacity after accounting for unplanned outages and planned maintenance.

Unplanned outages are at 12,245MW, up from last week's 12,158MW. Planned maintenance is at nearly 7,800MW.

“Having taken all of that into account ... we have removed about 20,000MW so the available generation capacity is at 27,700MW. And the demand is averaging 24,695MW and that's why you're not seeing load-shedding.

“We're not seeing load-shedding [because] we're working behind the scenes and we're aggressive on maintenance. The system is performing but the point I want to make is consistency,” he said.

Ramokgopa singled out December 18, which was when breakdowns dipped below 11,000MW “for the first time in a long time”.

But he said the unreliability of units “continues to be an albatross” and results in more diesel being burned to avert higher stages of load-shedding, which comes at a high cost.

Another low moment has been the delayed return of unit 1 at Kusile by five months.

Ramokgopa said highlights included the return of three units at Kusile and the benefits of delaying the decommissioning of Camden and Hendrina.

Eskom's head of generation Bheki Nxumalo was unable to provide clarity on when load-shedding was expected to resume, saying the priority was less on implementing load-shedding and more on dealing with unplanned outages as they wanted to ensure the “public and economy continue enjoying no load-shedding as far as possible”.

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