Eskom: Power alert 1 - Nature of Eskom’s business and customer base

7th July 2016

Eskom: Power alert 1 - Nature of Eskom’s business and customer base

Eskom is progressing well with the maintenance of its power generating plant whilst supplying the country’s electricity needs.

We are vertically integrated across a value chain that supplies electricity to both South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) is made up of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, connected through an integrated grid. We purchase electricity from electricity generating facilities beyond the country’s borders, and sell electricity to SADC countries, in terms of various agreement schemes.

We operate 28 power stations, comprising of coal-fired, nuclear powered, gas-fired, hydro and pumped storage stations, as well as a wind farm. We maintain approximately 377 287km of power lines and substations with a cumulative capacity of about 244 637MVA.
We are also building new power stations and high-voltage power lines to meet South Africa’s growing energy demand. Our capacity expansion programme is expected to be completed in 2022. To enable us to meet demand and create the space for plant maintenance while new generating capacity is being built, we continue to run a range of demand management and energy efficiency programmes.

During 2015/16, we sold 214 487GWh of electricity to a total of 5 688 640 customers, made up of redistributors and/or municipalities, commercial, industrial, mining, agricultural, rail, residential, and international customers.

We produce approximately 90% of the electricity used in South Africa. The balance is produced by IPPs and municipalities. The electricity produced by municipalities, together with that we supply to them, is distributed to their customers in their areas of supply.

We will continue to provide regular updates on the state of the power system through various media platforms.

 

Issued by Eskom