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Eskom has kept the lights on this winter and is actively partnering with South African consumers as it strives to keep the lights on while executing the much-needed planned maintenance on its ageing fleet of power stations.

At its third quarterly State of the System media briefing of 2012, Eskom reported that it had kept the lights on throughout winter, as it has done nationally since April 2008. However, the power system remains tight, and summer is always a challenge as we strive to keep a balance between keeping the lights on and performing the regular summer maintenance.

“The performance of our power stations has been volatile going into summer. Most of our power stations are middle-aged and they will need sustained high levels of maintenance if they are to perform reliably, said Eskom Chief Executive Brian Dames. “We thank customers who have partnered with us, and Government for its support and active championing of the energy efficiency drive,” Dames said.

Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba urged all sectors of society to support the call by the 49M energy saving movement to create an energy efficient South Africa. He said behavioural change in the way South Africans use electricity will contribute towards efforts by Eskom to reduce constraints on the country’s power system. “As in the past, the support of all consumers remains a key lever in ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply, and as the Department we will make sure that Eskom continues dialogue with big business as key stakeholders whilst not forgetting households and other electricity users in the process.We would like to urge the country to continue to support our efforts of keeping the lights on, especially as we go into summer which is the maintenance season and will be even more challenging,” he said.

Eskom’s target is to eliminate the backlog of maintenance on its power stations by the end of 2013. Considerable progress has been made, with the backlog reduced from 36 units in May 2011 to 20 units at present. “We are working to improve our ability to perform maintenance on time and at required levels of quality, and this has improved in the past quarter,” Dames said.

Eskom has put supply and demand initiatives in place over the past two years to enable it to manage a power system which is expected to be tight for at least the next two years. Some of Eskom’s large industrial and mining customers have provided invaluable assistance through the demand response programme for up to two hours over peak periods, at times when the power system has been very constrained. On the supply side, more than 1000 MW has been signed up from independent power producers, including municipal generators.

Eskom is accelerating a mass rollout of technologies for residential customers to become more energy efficient. Overall, there has been a significant uptake of new energy efficiency incentive programmes by the commercial and residential sectors.

Eskom is closely monitoring industrial action in the road transport industry. Up to 30% of the coal for Eskom’s power stations is delivered by truck, and the transport workers strike has had an impact on deliveries. Contingency plans have been put in place, but the level of coal stock days has fallen to an average of 43.2 days. This is still well within the target range, but coal stockpiles need to increase going into the holiday period and the festive season.

Eskom’s Medupi power station project is on track to deliver first power to the grid by the end of 2013. The Medupi site is back to normal after protest action by a small group of workers last month.

Eskom reported that demand for electricity for the year to date has been more than 2% lower than in the same period last year, reflecting weaker than expected economic growth, and commodity market conditions as well as demand side management initiatives. Industrial unrest in sectors such as mining over the past month has further reduced demand.

“As Eskom we would prefer to see thriving economic activity reflected in growth in electricity demand, and the new power stations we are building will support faster rates of growth and development for South Africa,” said Dames. “But the power system will remain tight until we get significant new capacity online. We need the space to do maintenance while also keeping the lights on. Eskom cannot do it alone. We appeal to South Africans to save at least 10% of their electricity usage.”