{"id":600715,"date":"2025-06-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=600715"},"modified":"2025-06-28T10:00:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T08:00:40","slug":"eskom-breakdowns-exceed-load-shedding-threshold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/600715-eskom-breakdowns-exceed-load-shedding-threshold.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom breakdowns exceed load-shedding threshold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom has reported that breakdowns at its power plants were at 15,137 MW on Friday afternoon, over the threshold at which it previously warned that stage 2 load-shedding may be necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the high unplanned outages and icy weather conditions in parts of South Africa, Eskom said available generation capacity was enough to meet peak demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said it had 30,703 MW of available capacity, plus an additional 720 MW from Kusile Unit 6, allowing it to meet the expected peak evening demand of 28,810 MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It explained that although Kusile Unit 6 was not yet in commercial operation, it had been contributing to the grid since 23 March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said its winter outlook remains valid. It indicated that load-shedding would not be necessary if unplanned outages stay below 13,000 MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if outages rise to 15,000MW, stage 2 load-shedding would be probable, albeit limited to a maximum of 21 days out of 153 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to breakdowns exceeding the 15,000 MW threshold on Friday afternoon, Eskom\u2019s unplanned outages averaged 14,696 MW over the last week, well above the 13,000 MW warning level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Eskom said its power system remains stable and continues to demonstrate resilience in response to increased electricity demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile occasional system constraints are experienced and managed, sufficient emergency reserves are in place and are strategically deployed to support demand during morning and evening peak periods,\u201d Eskom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo further enhance grid stability, Eskom plans to return a total of 2,450 MW of generation capacity to service ahead of the evening peak on Monday, 30 June 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent weeks, Eskom has reduced the amount of scheduled maintenance conducted on power plants to ensure sufficient capacity to meet demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the week of 20\u201326 June, planned maintenance averaged 3,789 MW. The Energy Availability Factor (EAF) ranged from 60% to 64%, with a month-to-date average of 60.61%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EAF is a measure of generating capacity available from Eskom power plants relative to their installed capacity. It takes breakdowns and maintenance into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF), which measures the capacity lost due to breakdowns, was 29.36% for the financial year to date (1 April to 26 June 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was higher than the 27.25% UCLF during the same period last year, which Eskom attributed to delays in returning 995 MW of capacity from planned maintenance, including 800 MW from Medupi Unit 4 since 1 June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eskom diesel usage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another important indicator of whether there is a danger of load-shedding is Eskom\u2019s open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) load factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCGTs are diesel-powered stations that Eskom uses to help balance the grid and as emergency generation units to keep load-shedding at bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year-to-date load factor for OCGTs declined slightly to 11.37%. However, this figure remains higher than the 6.21% recorded during the same period last year. The weekly OCGT load factor declined from 9.12% to 7.25%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiesel usage is expected to decline as more units return to service from long-term repairs and maintenance activities are reduced, increasing available generation capacity,\u201d Eskom assured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year-to-date, Eskom spent approximately R4.76 billion on fuel for the OCGT fleet. Eskom said its diesel expenditure was still within budget for the current financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCGTs have generated 810.24GWh during the current financial year. This is higher than the 442.65GWh generated during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said its year-to-date EAF has shown an upward trend, reaching 58.47%. However, this is still lower than the 61.19% recorded during the same period last year, primarily due to an increase in breakdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom has reported that breakdowns at its power plants were at 15,137\u00a0MW on Friday afternoon, over the threshold at which it previously warned that stage 2 load-shedding may be necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":564985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995,40380],"tags":[181,28037,8487,27487],"class_list":["post-600715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-trending","tag-eskom","tag-kusile-power-station","tag-load-shedding","tag-medupi-power-station"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600715"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600718,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600715\/revisions\/600718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}