{"id":606072,"date":"2025-08-11T10:12:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=606072"},"modified":"2025-08-11T10:13:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:13:46","slug":"eskom-powers-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/606072-eskom-powers-on.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom powers on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom reported that its year-to-date energy availability factor (EAF) is now over 60% after increasing to 60.14% last week.<\/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

\u201cAs of 8 August 2025, unplanned outages stand at 11,170MW, thanks to significant progress in plant performance as a result of the ongoing implementation of the Generation Recovery Plan,\u201d Eskom stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said the average breakdowns at its power stations this week were 10,884MW, well below the threshold at which it would need to implement load-shedding according to its winter forecast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the third 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

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

The state-owned power utility said there has been no load-shedding since 15 May 2025, with only 26 hours recorded between 1 April and 7 August 2025.<\/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

During the week, planned maintenance increased to an average of 5,343MW. Its weekly energy availability factor (EAF) ranged between 62% to 70%, with the month-to-date average EAF increasing to 65.38%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF), which measures the capacity lost due to breakdowns, decreased to 28.38% for the financial year to date. This was higher than the 26.06% UCLF during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo further strengthen grid stability, Eskom is planning to return a total of 3,280MW of generation capacity to service ahead of the evening peak on Monday, 11 August 2025, and throughout the coming week,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Eskom reported an increase in open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) usage for the week of 1\u20137 August 2025 and an improvement in its energy availability factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its weekly OCGT load factor increased from 0.31% to 5.99% 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 9.35%. This figure remains higher than the 4.82% recorded during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom 1 April to 7 August 2025, diesel spend remains within the budget allocated,\u201d Eskom said. The power utility spent an additional R210 million on diesel during the past week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year-to-date, Eskom spent R5.8 billion on fuel for the OCGT fleet, generating 988.56GWh of electricity. This output is still higher than the 509.42GWh 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

Its 60.14% weekly EAF figure remains below the 63.1% recorded during the same period last year, mainly due to a 2.3% year-to-date increase in breakdowns compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

End of load-shedding in sight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last week, EE Business Intelligence managing director and energy expert Chris Yelland noted that Eskom\u2019s power stations reached another major milestone, achieving a higher EAF than at the same time in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power utility had struggled to sustain the reliability improvements it achieved in 2024, with its 2025 EAF remaining stubbornly below last year\u2019s levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa also said last week that the permanent end of load-shedding<\/a> was \u201cwithin touching distance\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramokgopa said eight of Eskom\u2019s 14 coal power stations were operating with an EAF over 71% and that he was confident the power utility had turned a corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSouth Africans must be confident that we\u2019ve turned a corner, and at the right time, we will be able to share with the country where we are relative to the overall objective of ending load-shedding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are within touching distance, and I think in the next week or two we\u2019ll call a media briefing just to show you what the performance has been.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom reported that its year-to-date energy availability factor once again exceeds 60%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":472089,"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":[10034,74166,181,84835],"class_list":["post-606072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-trending","tag-chris-yelland","tag-energy-availability-factor-eaf","tag-eskom","tag-kgosientsho-ramokgopa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606072"}],"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=606072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606073,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606072\/revisions\/606073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}