Eskom, South Africa's power utility, projects a potential for a "load shedding free summer," contingent on maintaining unplanned power station losses under 13,000MW, as conveyed by Group Chief Executive Officer Dan Marokane during a media briefing on Eskom's operational state and summer strategy.
Marokane detailed, "Our view is that if we keep the unplanned losses below 13 000MW, we should have a load shedding free summer. At worst, we anticipate that in the event that unplanned losses reaches up to 15 500MW, we will at most experience Stage 2 [load shedding]."
He highlighted the past four months' performance, noting it has hovered around unplanned losses of 12,000MW, emphasizing the focus on controlling these losses to ensure a stable summer. Moreover, Marokane mentioned the expectation of additional generation capacity from power stations in the coming months, which should enhance reserve margins significantly.
"That 2500MW [of added capacity] will add significant margins to our reserves and once we have that, together with the sustained performance that we are seeing, we should get into a conversation sooner in the New Year, by March, as to when we can essentially indicate that from our perspective, load shedding at the chronic level that it was, is now behind us," he stated.
Marokane also noted a "structural shift" in the performance of the coal fleet, marking a reduction in unplanned outages and a period of 152 days without load shedding, indicating a fundamental improvement. He stressed the importance of sustaining this performance level across the business to avoid reverting to previous operational challenges.
Source: SA News