Eskom close to 300 day milestone without loadshedding

• Eskom reports that structural performance change continues to deliver ongoing suspension of loadshedding for over nine months to support socio-economic growth.

Eskom has reached 296 consecutive days without implementing loadshedding since 26 March last year. On Monday 20 January at midnight, Eskom will reach 300 days of loadshedding suspension for the South African economy, a milestone not seen since June 2018.

This performance has also resulted in year-to-date diesel savings of R16.42 billion (on a year-on-year basis), which is about 62.9% less than the R26.09 billion spent during the same period last year, as a result of the continued execution of the Generation Operational Recovery plan.

Operational Highlights:

• Koeberg Unit 2: Eskom’s Koeberg Nuclear Power Station has seen Unit 2 sending 930MW and more to the grid on some days since its return to service following a scheduled long-term outage, resulting in an average Energy Availability Factor (EAF) of 99.95% since the unit returned to service.
• Kriel Unit 6: Unit 6 at Kriel Power Station has been returned to service, adding 475MW back into the grid today after it tripped on 03 November 2024 due to the loss of hydraulic oil to the turbine valves as a result of a broken oil pipe causing an oil spill on the hot surfaces of the turbine.

Key Performance Highlights: 

• Average unplanned outages over the past week were 14 376MW, a minor improvement compared to the same period last year. To meet demand under these circumstances, reliance was placed on a higher Open-Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) load factor for the period under review.
• Year-to-date unplanned outages average 12 040MW, remaining below the summer base case of 13 000MW by 960MW.
• As of today, unplanned outages stand at 12 566MW, while available generation capacity is 28 145MW, sufficient to meet tonight’s forecasted peak demand of 24 636MW.
• The Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) is at 25.22% for the financial year-to-date (1 April 2024 to 16 January 2025), improving from 32.78% in the corresponding period last year. This represents a ~7.6% improvement.
• The weekly EAF slightly improved from 57.0% at the beginning of the financial year to 57.8% from 13 January 2025 to 16 January 2025, while the year-to-date EAF is at 61.9%, a significant improvement of ~6.9% compared to the same period last year (54.96%).
• Ongoing planned maintenance at 6 799MW aligns with our summer maintenance strategy to further improve reliability in preparation for winter 2025 and beyond.
• Strategic use of peaking stations, including pumped storage and OCGTs, remains available to manage electricity demand during peak times, particularly during evening peaks (17:00 to 22:00).
• Between 1 April 2024 and 16 January 2025, Eskom spent approximately R9.67 billion, which is below budget, generating 1 570.58GWh. This is significantly lower than the 4 158.97GWh generated during the same period last year.
• The OCGT load factor for 1 April 2024 to 16 January 2025 stabilised at 6.59%, compared to last year’s figure of 17.44%.
• The OCGT load factor for 10 to 16 January 2025 was 5.96%, lower than the 11.24% for the same period last year. This reduction is in line with the expectation expressed a week ago and is a result of units returning to service from the outage.

Author: Bryan Groenendaal