{"id":381706,"date":"2021-01-09T07:03:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T05:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=381706"},"modified":"2021-01-09T07:04:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T05:04:34","slug":"eskom-load-shedding-from-2000-to-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/381706-eskom-load-shedding-from-2000-to-2020.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom load-shedding from 2000 to 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

2021 started with two nights of load-shedding<\/strong><\/a> after unexpected breakdowns at Koeberg and a few older coal-fired power stations.<\/p>\n

Breakdowns resulted in a loss of 12,073MW in addition to 6,672MW of generation capacity that is offline because of planned maintenance.<\/p>\n

These outages and lower-than-expected electricity supply are nothing new for South Africa\u2019s power utility.<\/p>\n

Eskom\u2019s ageing fleet of power stations and unplanned outages have caused a decline in the power producer\u2019s energy availability factor (EAF) for years.<\/p>\n

The lower EAF has resulted in increasing load-shedding over the past three years, which is expected to continue well into 2021.<\/p>\n

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said South Africans should expect load-shedding to be a reality for the better part of the year.<\/p>\n

Eskom expects some improvements from September 2021, but even then load-shedding will not be completely eliminated.<\/p>\n

While renewable energy from wind and solar provides some relief, the unpredictability of supply is a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot just switch on and off renewable energy as you please, as is the case with base load,\u201d Mantshantsha said.<\/p>\n

The only thing which will eliminate load-shedding for good is new power stations coming online.<\/p>\n

Eskom\u2019s two new coal-fired power stations, Medupi and Kusile should have been fully operational by now, but design problems and building delays dogged these projects for years.<\/p>\n

Medupi and Kusile, which were originally expected to be completed by 2015, will only be completed by 2021 and 2023, respectively.<\/p>\n

The delay in bringing these two power stations online has resulted in years of rolling blackouts and slow economic growth.<\/p>\n

Eskom load-shedding from 2000 to 2020<\/h3>\n

Eskom was once one of the world\u2019s leading electricity companies and supplied more than half the electricity in Africa by the end of 1990.<\/p>\n

It was also highly efficient and promoted the fact that it was the world\u2019s lowest-cost producers of electricity in 1994.<\/p>\n

Over the next decade, things started to change, and by 2007 Eskom could no longer produce enough power to keep the lights on in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The country was first introduced to load-shedding in November 2007 with rolling blackouts disrupting business, closing mining operations, and leaving households in the dark.<\/p>\n

Former president Thabo Mbeki apologised to the nation for load-shedding and took \u201ccollective responsibility\u201d for the failure.<\/p>\n

The reality is that the blame should fall squarely on the government\u2019s shoulders as it was warned that Eskom would run out of electricity.<\/p>\n

New generation capacity is controlled by the Department of Energy, and a 1998 Energy White Paper said although there was excess supply capacity, growth in electricity demand was projected to exceed generation capacity by 2007.<\/p>\n

Exactly as predicted, Eskom ran out of capacity by the end of 2007 and load-shedding became part of the South African lexicon.<\/p>\n

Apart from a lull between 2009 and 2012, and then again between 2016 and 2017, the country experienced blackouts every year between 2007 and 2020.<\/p>\n

What is of concern is that load-shedding increased both in terms of the number of days and MWh shed over the last three years.<\/p>\n

In 2018, South Africa experienced 15 days of load-shedding during which 812,205MWh were shed.<\/p>\n

This increased to 36 days and 494,759MWh in 2019 and to 52 days and over 1,260,000MWh in 2020.<\/p>\n

The tables below provide an overview of the number of days of load-shedding and the amount of power shed since 2007.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nLoad-shedding (number of days)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2007<\/strong><\/td>\n13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2008<\/strong><\/td>\n44<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2009<\/strong><\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2010<\/strong><\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/strong><\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2012<\/strong><\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2013<\/strong><\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2014<\/strong><\/td>\n17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2015<\/strong><\/td>\n103<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2016<\/strong><\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2017<\/strong><\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2018<\/strong><\/td>\n15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2019<\/strong><\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2020<\/strong><\/td>\n52<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nLoad-shedding (TWh)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2007<\/strong><\/td>\n0.10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2008<\/strong><\/td>\n0.77<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2009<\/strong><\/td>\n0.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2010<\/strong><\/td>\n0.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/strong><\/td>\n0.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2012<\/strong><\/td>\n0.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2013<\/strong><\/td>\n0.03<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2014<\/strong><\/td>\n0.29<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2015<\/strong><\/td>\n1.40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2016<\/strong><\/td>\n0.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2017<\/strong><\/td>\n0.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2018<\/strong><\/td>\n0.22<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2019<\/strong><\/td>\n1.09<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2020<\/strong><\/td>\n1.27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Load-shedding under different Eskom CEOs<\/h3>\n

In 2020, Eskom had the highest average MWh per day of load-shedding in history and the second-highest average days of load-shedding.<\/p>\n

This was particularly concerning as electricity demand was much lower than usual because of the lockdown during which many industries shut down.<\/p>\n

The increased load-shedding in 2020 was, however, not unexpected.<\/p>\n

At Eskom CEO Andr\u00e9 de Ruyter\u2019s first system status briefing on 31 January 2020, he warned that there would be an increased risk of load-shedding because of increased maintenance.<\/p>\n

\u201cEskom was catching up on maintenance during the period, particularly up to September 2021, after which we might see a significant reduction in the risk of load-shedding,\u201d Mantshantsha said.<\/p>\n

He added that Eskom scaled up maintenance significantly in 2020, which took capacity out of production.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point during the early stages of the national lockdown, Eskom took more than 11,000MW of capacity out on planned maintenance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mantshantsha said this maintenance is needed to improve the performance and reliability of the power plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results of these efforts will start bearing fruit during the third quarter of 2021, when much of the reliability maintenance has been completed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis of course does not mean load-shedding will be eliminated. That can only be achieved through the addition of new generation capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The table below provides an overview of load-shedding under different Eskom CEOs between 2000 and 2020.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Load-shedding under Eskom CEOs<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CEO<\/strong><\/td>\nStart<\/strong><\/td>\nEnd<\/strong><\/td>\nAverage load-shedding days per year<\/strong><\/td>\nAverage MWh load-shedding per day<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Thulani Gcabashe<\/strong><\/td>\nFeb-00<\/td>\nApr-07<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n39<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jacob Maroga<\/strong><\/td>\nMay-07<\/td>\nNov-09<\/td>\n22<\/td>\n922<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mpho Makwana<\/strong><\/td>\nNov-09<\/td>\nJun-10<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brian Dames<\/strong><\/td>\nJul-10<\/td>\nMar-14<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n63<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Collin Matjila<\/strong><\/td>\nApr-14<\/td>\nSep-14<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tshediso Matona<\/strong><\/td>\nOct-14<\/td>\nApr-15<\/td>\n69<\/td>\n3337<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brian Molefe<\/strong><\/td>\nApr-15<\/td>\nNov-16<\/td>\n46<\/td>\n1559<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Matshela Koko<\/strong><\/td>\nDec-16<\/td>\nMay-17<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Johnny Dladla<\/strong><\/td>\nJun-17<\/td>\nOct-17<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sean Maritz<\/strong><\/td>\nOct-17<\/td>\nJan-18<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Phakamani Hadebe<\/strong><\/td>\nJan-18<\/td>\nJul-19<\/td>\n19<\/td>\n1408<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jabu Mabuza<\/strong><\/td>\nAug-19<\/td>\nDec-19<\/td>\n36<\/td>\n3234<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Andre de Ruyter<\/strong><\/td>\nJan-20<\/td>\nDec-20<\/td>\n52<\/td>\n3445<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Now read: South Africa\u2019s electricity crisis hits in 2021<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Load-shedding continues to frustrate South Africans and hurt economic growth, and the bad news is that it has been getting worse in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[61891,181,35,63032,5624],"class_list":["post-381706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-andre-de-ruyter","tag-eskom","tag-headline","tag-sikonathi-mantshantsha","tag-thabo-mbeki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}