Eskom’s Group Chief Executive Dr Brian Molefe says consumers should not expect to experience load shedding during the winter period because the power utility has stabilised the grid.
Eskom’s Group Chief Executive Dr Brian Molefe says consumers should not expect to experience load shedding during the winter period because the power utility has stabilised the grid.
Briefing journalists on the state of the power grid on Thursday 12 May, the Group CEO said the status of the grid is at satisfactory levels because planned maintenance now exceeds unplanned breakdowns, which signifies that technicians are now in full control of the grid.
“Our prognosis for winter is that there will be no load shedding. We will continue with a rigorous programme of planned maintenance without implementing load shedding while also minimising the usage of open cycle gas turbines,” Molefe said.
Molefe said Eskom has not implemented load shedding for nine months since August last year.
He said the availability of energy has increased form 70% in October 2015 to 76% in April 2016, largely due to a decrease in breakdowns from 18% in October 2015 to 12% in April 2016.
As of 11 May 2016, the energy availability stood at 78.1% due to Eskom’s maintenance tool, Tetris – which ensures that the maintenance schedule is optimised to ensure that there is no load shedding.
Breakdowns, or unplanned maintenance, stood at 9.2%, while planned outages stood at 12.7% of the total electricity supply.
Highlighting the performance of the grid, Molefe said Eskom has managed to synchronise the first two Ingula units (three and four) to the national grid ahead of schedule on 3 March and 25 March respectively.
He said Medupi’s unit 6 has been commercially operational since August 2015.
“For winter, Eskom is targeting a maintenance budget of 8 500 MW. In summer we budget 11 500 MW.
“Renewable energy will continue to contribute up to 800 MW (photovoltaic) and 500 MW (wind) of the total installed capacity of 2 310 MW of electricity generated during the day and wind, including Eskom’s Sere wind farm,” he said.
Molefe said the commissioning of Medupi unit 6 on 23 August 2015 has added 794 MW to the grid. Medupi unit 5 is expected to be commercially operational in March 2018.
The reasons for no load shedding can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the leadership of the Eskom board, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, the additional capacity onto the grid and the improved plant performance, amongst others.
“Eskom has stabilised and we don’t anticipate load shedding. We will continue with planned maintenance and we remain focused on delivering on our capital expansion programme.
“We appreciate the support of all our customers and urge them to continue to use electricity sparingly at all times. Once completed in the next five years, our capacity expansion programme will increase our generation capacity by 17 384 MW, transmission lines by 9 756km and substation capacity by 42 470 MVA.
“This will enable us to provide security of electricity supply to South African homes and businesses, powering economic expansion and extending electricity to millions of households,” he said.
– SAnews.gov.za
