Eskom suspends load-shedding after generation recovery

Eskom suspended load-shedding on Wednesday morning after the recovery of its generation capacity and replenishment of emergency reserves.

Load-shedding was implemented at stage 3 on Saturday and escalated to stage 6 early on Sunday, which Eskom said was due to many unit trips at power stations. The enforced outages were implemented at stage 4 from Monday after the energy utility said it had brought eight of the 10 affected generation units back online. This was reduced to stage 2 from 5am on Tuesday. 

Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said valuable lessons would be learnt from the many unit trips related to electrical and control system issues within auxiliary parts of the power stations.

Eskom group executive for generation Bheki Nxumalo, said: “We remain committed to high levels of maintenance, and the results are clear. Ongoing planned maintenance stands at 6,660MW, in alignment with our summer period maintenance strategy, which is at increased levels to prepare for winter and meet licence and regulatory requirements.

"We reaffirm our commitment to ensuring SA will not return to the severe levels of load-shedding experienced in 2023,” said Nxumalo.

Eskom's efforts delivered a 99% electricity availability rate during the utility's financial year from April 1 2024 to February 21 this year, he said, saving R17bn in diesel costs.

Eskom announced its interim results for the first six months of the financial year (April 1 to September 30 2024) on January 30, which showed the energy availability factor (EAF) increased to 62.96% from 55.27% in the year before.

It attributed the improvement to a substantial reduction of about 4,000MW in unplanned breakdowns and losses (UCLF), which decreased from 34.24% to 25.60%. 

The power utility said the EAF exceeded 70% several times during the period, with UCLF dropping below 20% at times.

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