Johnathan Paoli
Energy and Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has tentatively welcomed the good performance of state power utility Eskom, but said the country was “not out of the woods yet”.
Ramokgopa was briefing the media on Monday and said in a feat last achieved over four years ago the country has been without load shedding for over 130 days.
“Eskom CEO Dan Marokane and the Eskom team have done exceptionally well. Over the past week of July 22, Eskom has averaged an Energy Availability Factor of 70%, the rate at which these units are failing and also the degree to which they approximate their design capacity,” he said.
The minister said during the same period last year, the country was in the grip of load shedding, with an EAF of 55% and reminded the public of the need for “short term pain for long term gain”, and how it has paid off with the improvements South Africa was currently experiencing.
“This is phenomenal. I want to emphasise, we are not out of the woods yet but the team is doing exceptionally well,” Ramakogpa said, adding that 23 July represented the first time since 2018 that Eskom had an availability energy of more than 35 000 MW.
Ramokgopa said this is a confirmation that the strategy adopted by the board is working and intends to stick to it and ensure the power utility was able to deliver the performance that is required.
He praised the performance of some of the country’s power stations and said an intra-station competition was healthy in ensuring a remarkable increase in the EAF.
“Kusile and Medupi power stations are expected to be in that category because they are some of our newest power stations. But I think what is encouraging us is that, consistently, Matla and Matimba power stations are there in that category too,” the minister said.
In a response to a written question asked by Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Member of Parliament Omphile Maotwe last week, Ramokgopa told the National Assembly that South Africa could expect a summer with no load shedding forecast.
“Generation has been able to maintain the unplanned losses below 14 000 MW throughout the winter period while leveraging the improved performance to conduct additional short-term Planned Capacity Loss Factor,” he said.
He said the generation fleet is showing more reliable performance going into the summer of 2024 than last year, and that indications suggested that the current performance was sustainable going forward.
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