- Eskom reports that in the past 24 hours a total of 3 320MW of generation capacity has been restored, ensuring a stable power system with enough supply to meet the long weekend’s demand.
- The state owned energy utility adds that emergency reserves are adequate and will be strategically utilised when necessary to manage peak demand.
- Eskom implemented stage two loadshedding on Thursday evening for around 12 hours. Read more
Planned maintenance continues to ensure system readiness for increased winter demand, to meet regulatory requirements and to ensure environmental compliance. Year-to-date (1 to 24 April 2025), 7 164MW of the generation capacity has been under planned maintenance, on average. This equates to 15.32% of generation capacity, marking a 3.8% increase compared to the same period last year.
The Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF), or unplanned outages, for the financial year-to-date (1 to 24 April 2025), stands at 27.82%, improving by ~2.1% from 29.89% achieved in the same period last year.
The OCGT load factor increased to 15.28% during the past week (18 to 24 April 2025), up from the 9.78% recorded in the week of 11 to 17 April 2025.
A total of 4 058MW will be returned to service before the evening peak on Tuesday, 29 April 2025, to further stabilise the grid.
Leading into winter
Eskom is scheduled to announce its winter outlook on 5 May 2025.
Respected energy analyst Chris Yelland comments, “While EAF remains low at 57% for the last 2 weeks and stubbornly below 60% for the year to date, it is important to note that this is not the full picture. Planned maintenance outages have risen very significantly for the last 6 weeks to the highest levels in 3 years at this time of year, while unplanned outages (generator breakdowns and partial load losses) have dropped over the last 3 weeks to 26%. This, together with 800 MW Kusile Unit 1 and 800 MW Medupi Unit 4 hopefully coming online soon, prepares Eskom well for the winter months of June, July and August”.
The latest Eskom week-on-week energy availability factor EAF for 2025. Data source: Eskom. Image credit: Chris Yelland. Chris is an energy analyst, consultant, electrical engineer, public speaker, writer and MD at EE Business Intelligence (Pty) Ltd. Follow Chris on X – @chrisyelland
Link to Eskom’s real time data portal HERE
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
