Good news for South African citizens as they can expect a load shedding-free summer, according to Eskom.
Eskom announced its outlook for the summer period on Monday, 26 August and also provided an update on its current operations following five months with no power cuts.
According to the utility, the Generation Recovery Plan, which started in March 2023, continues to enhance efficiencies for Eskom and deliver a structural shift in fleet performance.
“Based on the improved generation performance, the best-case scenario indicates that there’ll be no load shedding, if unplanned outages stay at 13 000MW or below,” said Eskom CEO Dan Marokane.
“Key performances highlight a winter without no load shedding, positive impact on economic outlook and profitability, enhanced reliability through increased planned maintenance, sustained increase in the Energy Availability Factor and reduced reliance on Open-Cycle Gas Turbines and diesel cost savings.’’
Marokane further mentioned that this year’s summer outlook base case has been revised downwards by 1 500MW from the previous (2023/2024) summer outlook.
“For a scenario where unplanned outages rise to 14 000MW, stage 1 load shedding could be implemented. The unlikely scenario of unplanned outages at 15 000MW will, at worst, result in stage 2 load shedding.
“The trend in the performance of the fleet has reduced both the base case unplanned capacity assumption and the possible intensity in the event that load shedding is needed,’’ he said.
Marokane also shared that Eskom aims to add 2 500MW capacity by January 2025 through meticulous implementation recovery plans and that the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station is expected to return to service from a long-term outage in December.
“Kusile Unit 6 will be synchronised for the first time into the grid in December, adding 800MW of capacity. The return of Medupi Unit 4 from an extended outage will add another 800MW before the financial year,” he explained.
