(3 Minutes Read)
South African Minister of Energy and Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has warned that although Eskom has delivered an exceptional performance to keep load shedding at bay, the country is not fully overcome by the crisis yet.
South African Minister of Energy and Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has warned that although Eskom has delivered an exceptional performance to keep load shedding at bay, the country is not fully overcome by the crisis yet. The country has not experienced load shedding for at least 130 days – a feat last achieved some four years ago.
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane and the Eskom team have done exceptionally well. So over the past week, Eskom has averaged 70% of EAF [Energy Availability Factor]. In the same period last year, South Africa was going through a period of load shedding and was sitting at about 55% EAF. This is phenomenal and the team is doing exceptionally well.
He highlighted another milestone reached by the power utility in July. The 23rd of July was a day to celebrate because, for the first time since 2018, we had an availability of 35 000MW plus. The last time we saw this was on the 16th of July 2018. It is a confirmation that the strategy adopted by the board is working and we are going to stay at it and ensure that we are able to deliver the kind of performance that is required, he said.
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The Minister singled out improved performance at some six power stations, which he said, had reached at least 70% EAF. Kusile and Medupi [power stations] are expected to be in that category because they are some of the newest power stations. There’s an intra-station competition which is very healthy for the purposes of driving this EAF, he concluded.
