By Prospects to get the economy of the country going are looking good as Eskom announced on Monday, 26 August 2024 that, given its summer outlook, there will be no load-shedding as the utility has increased its Energy Availability Factor (EAF).
The economy of South Africa had an almost fatal blow from load-shedding last year as billions were lost a day, people lost their jobs increasing the unemployment rate even further, some small businesses had to shut down due to unsustainable operational costs.
The outlook by Eskom is a welcomed one by industry and households in general. Eskom said the outlook for summer from 1 September 2024 to 31 March 2024, there will be no load-shedding following five months (152 consecutive days) without load-shedding including the winter season.
“The Generation Operational Recovery Plan, which commenced in March 2023, continues to enhance efficiencies for Eskom and deliver a structural shift in fleet performance. Based on the improved generation performance, the base case scenario indicates that there will be no load-shedding if unplanned outages stay at 13 000MW or below,” said Eskom.
The parastatal further noted that, compared to last year’s winter season, whereby the country experienced outages for 153 days, this year there was consistent power supply throughout the winter period.
The improved performance by Eskom will have a positive impact on the economy of the country and boost investor confidence. According to Eskom, there is a potential 2% growth for the South African economy and improved financial performance for the utility in financial year 2025 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025).
“Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) averaged at 12 400MW in 2024 winter, reaching a 12-month low of 11 300MW in July 2024. This marks a 20% improvement and is 3 100MW better than the 15 500MW likely scenario in the 2024 Winter Outlook.
Eskom surpassed its planned maintenance target of 3 677MW, achieving an average of 4 799MW during winter 2024 – a notable improvement over the past two years. The EAF rose from 57.00% in April 2024 to 67.02% by the end of July 2024 – a significant improvement of 10.02%,” said Eskom.
Eskom has no only improved its performance but has also saved billions in burning diesel.
“As Eskom enters a competitive electricity market, it has not only delivered a winter free of load-shedding, but it has done so by being efficient and saving over R10 billion in diesel spend that will be a strong driver to a possible return to profit in our current financial year (FY25). This outcome has led to predictions suggesting on-going performance can contribute to potential growth in the economy of around 2%,” said Dan Marokane, Eskom Group Chief Executive.
