{"id":621168,"date":"2025-12-03T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T07:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=621168"},"modified":"2025-12-03T09:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T07:01:11","slug":"one-number-that-eskom-keeps-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/621168-one-number-that-eskom-keeps-missing.html","title":{"rendered":"One number that Eskom keeps missing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom\u2019s latest financial results revealed that its energy availability factor (EAF) declined and that it failed to meet its target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom\u2019s energy availability factor (EAF), the percentage of time the power station was available for use when needed, shows where the problem lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The energy availability factor is a key indicator of a power utility\u2019s reliability and operational efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom stated that if its EAF improved to around 70%, load-shedding would be a thing of the past, and South Africa would achieve electricity security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this critical number in mind, Eskom set targets for an energy availability factor of 60% by March 2023, 65% by March 2024, and 70% by March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom missed these targets by a country mile. By May 2025, Eskom\u2019s year-to-date EAF was 56.43%, well below its 70% target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom\u2019s results for the six months ended 30 September 2025 showed that its EAF for the period was 62.41%, down from 62.94% a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power utility confirmed that it did not meet the half-year shareholder compact target of 65%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe slight year-on-year decrease in EAF is due to an increase in both planned maintenance (PCLF) to 11.29%,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom added that its unplanned capacity loss factor (UCLF) for the period was 25.80%, slightly higher than last year\u2019s 25.62%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, Eskom\u2019s power plants did not show any improvement in reliability and continue to break down regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its coal-fired stations recorded an average energy utilisation factor (EUF) of 85.96% for the period, down from 89.71% last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom added that it aspires to achieve a 66% energy availability factor by the end of the current financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worth noting that this is well below the Eskom board\u2019s initial 70% EAF target by March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom is burning more diesel to keep the lights on<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eskom continues to burn billions in diesel to keep the lights on during peak times, as it cannot always meet demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It explained that its primary energy costs declined by 1% to R78.4 billion, with lower spending on international purchases and independent power producers (IPPs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this was offset by higher coal usage costs due to inflationary contractual increases and more extensive use of open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increased use of OCGTs was intended to support the power system, which was constrained by increased planned maintenance and higher unavailability of generation plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spend on Eskom-owned and IPP OCGTs combined increased by 6% to R6.5 billion to produce 1TWh. This was up from R6.1 billion and 0.9TWh year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes fuel costs, storage and demurrage charges, as well as maintenance costs in the case of IPP OCGTs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it excludes the impact of fuel levy rebates for the sake of comparability. A R1 billion in fuel levy rebates has been recorded for the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom added that despite the stabilisation of the power system, local load reduction measures remain necessary in certain areas during periods of peak demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom explained that this is necessary to ensure public safety and to protect its distribution network against equipment failure caused by illegal connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are taking active steps to eliminate load reduction by March 2027 through the deployment of smart meters,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mart meters will enable advanced online monitoring and management of demand at the customer level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will be coupled with the rollout of distributed energy resources such as microgrids to bolster supply in remote and high-demand areas,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These initiatives will benefit approximately 1.69 million customers in Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Eskom EAF from 2021 to 2025<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom\u2019s latest financial results revealed that its energy availability factor (EAF) declined and that it failed to meet its target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"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],"tags":[74166,102469,181,77130],"class_list":["post-621168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-energy-availability-factor-eaf","tag-energy-utilisation-factor-euf","tag-eskom","tag-open-cycle-gas-turbines-ocgts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621168"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621331,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621168\/revisions\/621331"}],"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=621168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}