‘Concerted effort reinstates 7 000MW’
ELECTRICITY Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has said that a concerted effort by Eskom has brought back 7 000 megawatts (MW) of capacity since May last year.
This comes as load shedding remains suspended due to the continued sustained improvement in generation performance and 4 400MW reduction in unplanned outages.
Speaking at a media briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan yesterday, Ramokgopa said: “Our biggest enemy has been the unplanned capacity loss factor (UCLF). I am happy to say that a concerted effort by the Eskom team is bearing fruit and the UCLF has been reduced from 18 196MW in May, 2023, to 11 036MW on May 5, this year.
“That means we have had a structural shift that has added more than 7 000MW to available capacity.”
Ramokgopa was at pains to stress that the current sequence of 40 days without load shedding had nothing to do with electioneering ahead of the May 29 national elections.
“But I am happy to say that since May 1, we have used no diesel at the OCGT and in April, 2024, the usage was less than a third of what it was in April, 2023.”
Ramokgopa said they were busy accumulating the days without load shedding so that soon they could use the unit of measure as being weeks, then months and eventually years, but he stressed that “one should not praise a fish for swimming”.
To address the long-term energy security needs, Ramokgopa mentioned his visit to Richards Bay last week where he was briefed on a 3 000MW gas-to-power combined-cycle power plant (CCPP).
The CCPP is located in the Richards Bay industrial development zone (IDZ) and is a pioneering initiative in South Africa’s energy landscape.
Construction is likely to start in 2027, and it is expected to enter into commercial operation in 2028.
Eskom senior manager in the group executive generation office, Eric Shunmagum, said the improvement in Eskom’s power generation was reflected in the improvement of the energy availability factor (EAF) to 58.71% in week 15 this year.