By Akani Nkuna
Eskom’s electricity demand declined by an average 3% during the previous year as more businesses and households turned to private power generation, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
The growing adoption of independent energy sources, including solar and embedded generation, reduced reliance on the grid, easing pressure on Eskom and contributing to improved energy security in South Africa.
“The demand for Eskom’s electricity decreased by an average of 3% this year due to increased private sector generation capacity uptake,” the CSIR said on Monday.
“Consequently, a combination of lower electricity demand and a gradual increase in Eskom’s EAF helped to reduce the utilisation of diesel generators to an average of 6% in year 2024, compared to 12% in year 2023, and eliminated load-shedding from April 2024 onwards.”
The CSIR released its annual power generation report in Pretoria on Monday, examining load-shedding trends and Eskom’s energy availability factor from January to December 2024.
The report provides insights into electricity supply performance and key statistics over the past year.
“There has been a significant improvement in terms of the lower residual demand. And what this means is that we have seen that the demand continues to decline year on year,” CSIR Energy Research Centre manager Dr Thabo Hlalele told reporters.
Hlalele further said that higher energy availability led to increased coal generation, reducing reliance on diesel, which saw a significant drop. Renewable and nuclear generation declined slightly, while pumped storage used rose.
Additionally, lower hydro inflows reduced hydro output, and energy imports decreased as coal generation increased boosting overall energy production last year.
“Eskom’s… EAF (energy availability factor) has been trending down; the worst EAF was experienced in 2023. Eskom has since implemented a Generation Recovery Plan which targeted several coal stations to recover the EAF. The highest EAF observed in 2024 was 70% which is 10% higher compared to 2023,” said Hlalele.
Ramped-up baseload generation last year significantly reduced the need for demand side response (DSR) measures, resulting in a notable decline compared to 2023.
“Actual monthly electricity production for the period shows that there was less energy production from diesel throughout the months for 2024 compared to 2023 and much lower utilisation of DSR in 2024,” said Hlalele.
Despite initial concerns, load-shedding decreased substantially in 2024, which is attributed to enhanced EAF and lower residual load.
Notably, private sector solar PV generation (5.8GW) produced 2.3 TWh in Q1 2024, significantly mitigating loadshedding during that period.
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