By Rorisang Modiba
Certainly, all South Africans are happy to have gone for two weeks without load shedding, but everybody’s wondering why.
This is the longest time South Africa has been without rolling blackouts in 2024.
Eskom have said the extended break is because they have enough power supply and reserves, especially with lower power usage over Easter.
Chris Yelland, an energy analyst, told News24 that the decrease in unplanned breakdowns shows improvements.
“One of the big problems, when former CEO André de Ruyter was around, was there was no money available for maintenance,” Yelland said.
Yelland said that the National Treasury’s absorption of Eskom’s R254-billion debt has allowed the utility to use more funds for maintenance.
However, Yelland warned that maintenance alone won’t solve all of Eskom’s issues as the power plants are ageing and new capacity needs to be developed.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said that increased planned maintenance, peaking between December 2023 and January 2024, has affected the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) negatively but is expected to enhance long-term plant reliability and energy security.
Despite the short-term impact on EAF, there has been a noticeable improvement in power plant performance, contributing to a reduction in load shedding.
Ramokgopa said a comparison of load shedding from 1 December 2022 until 16 February 2023 compared to the year-on-year period from 1 December 2023 to 16 February 2024, indicates that load shedding hours were reduced from 1,801.25 to 1,217.98, which is about 600 hours less.”
Pictured above: Eskom.
Image source: File
