{"id":605108,"date":"2025-08-02T16:01:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T14:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=605108"},"modified":"2025-08-10T22:14:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T20:14:55","slug":"eskom-breakdowns-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/605108-eskom-breakdowns-milestone.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom breakdowns milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom reports that, on Friday, its power station breakdowns were at their lowest levels recorded in nine months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs of 1 August 2025, unplanned outages stand at 8,525MW, the lowest level in recent history, narrowly surpassing the 8,258MW recorded on 28 October 2024,\u201d Eskom stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe generation fleet continues to show ongoing solid momentum, with over half (57%) of Eskom\u2019s fourteen coal-fired power stations now operating at an energy availability factor (EAF) above 70%.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said three power stations had achieved a notable performance of more than 90% EAF. \u201cAn additional four stations are operating above 60%, reflecting the fleet\u2019s growing stability and improved reliability,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Eskom said the average breakdowns at its power stations this week were 10,206MW, well below the threshold at which it would need to implement load-shedding according to its winter forecast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in many weeks, breakdowns were also lower than the same period last year (10,229MW).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state-owned power utility also reported a substantial decrease in open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) usage for the week of 25\u201331 July 2025 and an improvement in its energy availability factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the second consecutive week that Eskom\u2019s weekly average breakdowns have been below the 13,000MW level, the threshold above which load-shedding becomes a probability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith 30 days of Eskom\u2019s winter outlook period still remaining, the system remains well-positioned to maintain stability and meet demand effectively,\u201d Eskom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen occasional system constraints arise, they are effectively managed through the strategic deployment of emergency reserves during morning and evening peak periods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said its winter outlook, published on 5 May 2025, remains valid. If outages rose 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

Load-shedding has thus far remained well below these levels, despite breakdowns hovering in Eskom\u2019s \u201cdanger zone\u201d for ten consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said there has been no load-shedding since 15 May 2025, with only 26 hours recorded between 1 April and 24 July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo further strengthen grid stability, Eskom is planning to return a total of 3,075MW of generation capacity to service ahead of the evening peak on Monday, 4 August 2025, and throughout the coming week,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As winter started, Eskom 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, planned maintenance decreased to an average of 4,745MW. Its weekly energy availability factor (EAF) ranged from 64% to 71%, with the month-to-date average EAF increasing to 64.08%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF), which measures the capacity lost due to breakdowns, decreased to 28.58% for the financial year to date. This was higher than the 26.60% UCLF during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Another measure indicating substantial improvements at Eskom was that it reported a further decrease in its weekly OCGT load factor from 1.86% to 0.31%. \u201cThis indicates less reliance on OCGTs,\u201d Eskom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open-cycle gas turbines (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 decreased to 9.55%. This figure remains higher than the 4.93% recorded during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom 1 April to 31 July 2025, diesel spend remains within the budget allocated,\u201d Eskom said. The power utility spent an additional R10 million on diesel during the past week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year-to-date, Eskom spent R5.626 billion on fuel for the OCGT fleet, generating 954.20GWh of electricity. This output is still higher than the 493.17GWh generated during the same timeframe last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom reported that its year-to-date EAF has increased to 59.88% and remains lower than the 62.84% recorded during the same period last year, primarily due to a 2.3% increase in breakdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Eskom reports that, on Friday, its power station breakdowns were at their lowest levels recorded in nine months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":603364,"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_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995,40380],"tags":[74166,181,8487,71472],"class_list":["post-605108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-trending","tag-energy-availability-factor-eaf","tag-eskom","tag-load-shedding","tag-open-cycle-gas-turbines-ocgt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605108"}],"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=605108"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606071,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605108\/revisions\/606071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}