Eskom says some power stations show big improvement

Could this be a bit of rare bit of good news for South Africans gatvol of load shedding? Eskom has said it has seen a marked improvement in the performance at some of its power stations.

In a statement issued late on Thursday evening, Eskom said six of its coal-fired power stations have achieved a 70% energy availability factor for the first time since early May last year. The state-owned utility described these improvements as a “milestone”.

“Three of these power stations, Camden, Duvha and Matla, have been on a sustained upward trend as a result of a reduction of plant breakdowns and the return to service of a number of units that were on unplanned breakdowns,” the company said.

“Lethabo, Matimba and Medupi have been experiencing continued good performance and remain among Eskom’s three best-performing stations. In addition, Lethabo was able to sustain performance after a quick recovery following a wet coal incident experienced last week, due to flooding after excessive rainfall.”

In the statement, Eskom acting CEO Calib Cassim cautioned that the improvements represent “early progress” but show a “positive trajectory from actions taken to recover Eskom generation plants”.

“This is consistent with Eskom’s target to achieve 70% EAF by the 2025 financial year,” Cassim said.

“The marked improvement in performance at Camden, Duvha and Matla, as well as the sustained commendable performance at Lethabo, Matimba and Medupi, gives assurance that if we continue to apply an all-hands-on-deck-approach we will continue to improve the energy availability,” said Eskom chairman Mpho Makwana.

Read: S&P upgrades Eskom’s outlook

Eskom in recent days has reduced the intensity of load shedding, with stage-3 cuts expected to persist throughout Friday. This is a significant improvement over the stage-6 power cuts that the utility has imposed regularly in recent months.  – © 2023 NewsCentral Media

Get TechCentral’s daily newsletter