Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Sunday there has been considerable improvement in the generation of electricity during the past week.
Speaking during his weekly media briefing, Ramokgopa said Eskom was beginning to normalise the capacity to be upward of 29 000 megawatts.
“For past week, Monday to Friday, the generation averaged about 28 932 MW. On two occasions, 8 and 10 August, we breached 29 000MW.
“It is an illustration of the consistency in the generation side,” he said.
Ramokgopa also said the expectation as the country entered the less severe period of cold and with the demand for electricity being down, the teams would ensure there was long term sustainability of units and ramp up planned outages.
“Now that generation is gradually improving, you can see that we have breached the 60% energy availability factor comfortably and that the demand is coming down.”
He said for long term sustainability, it was important that units were taken down when deemed necessary.
“Planned maintenance is going up and that is what makes our ability to reduce the intensity of load shedding. It’s a short pain, but a long term gain,” he said.
He indicated that the unplanned capacity loss factor – units tripping and failing on their own – was beginning to tamper down.
“An area that continues to be an albatross is one on partial losses – these units not performing at right levels. Although they give megawatts, they are not at levels that are desired. We are sitting at 6226MW.”
Ramokgopa said the month of July showed exceptional performance with an average 1300MW outage slips, and the ability to return units at the time committed to return them.
“The lower the outage slips means there is better planning and we are able to give the country some assurance of available capacity and be able to control the intensity of load shedding.”
He noted that the energy availability factor stood at 48% as at May, but has been lifted and now averaged 60%.
The minister indicated that they were initiating interventions on power stations that were dragging them down.
“We work with them to ensure we are to improve the performance of the power stations.”
Stations falling within the energy availability factor of 60% and above included Medupi at 88%, Lethapho 86%, Matimba 72%, Camden 66%, Duvha 62% and Majuba 60%.
Ramokgopa described the performance of the six power stations as having been consistent since May.
“These are the stations that are anchoring this performance and make it possible to undermine the intention of load shedding,” he said.
Of the stations with energy availability factors ranging between 40 and 59, these were Koeberg, Matla, Arnot, Kendall and Kriel.
He noted that part of the underperformance was due to historic reasons, but the R244 billion lifeline from the National Treasury would be directed towards maintenance.
The minister said the remaining power stations “complicit in dragging us down” were Hendrina with energy availability factor at 27%, Grootvlei 27%, Kusile 19%, Thuthuka 13%.
Ramokgopa told of plans that have been put in place for these power stations.
“I am optimistic about the future. We have set the bar very high, he said.
“We know the kind of support from the board and the minister and the work in other areas of Eskom.
“We are to improve the energy availability factor, but we are modest,” he said, adding that they would be making gradual improvements.
“We will make everything possible by focusing on individual power stations,” the minister said.
Cape Times