Eskom is progressing well with the maintenance of its power generating plant whilst supplying the country’s electricity needs. No load shedding is anticipated today.

Eskom has significantly improved its plant performance since August last year, resulting in no load shedding being implemented for nearly nine consecutive months.We are adhering to our Tetris maintenance plan and are operating within our 8 500 MW maintenance budget whilst making the most of the weekend maintenance opportunities.

The total average for unplanned outages from 28 April – 02 May 2016 was approximately 2 819 MW, with a partial load loss average of approximately 1 249 MW. We even had partial load losses dipping to record lows of 780 MW on Tuesday, 3 May 2016.

Key performance highlights for the weekend comprised of no diesel dispatched over the weekend and a total forced outage rate (UCLF) of below 3 000 MW on average for the weekend.

The reduction in unplanned outages has contributed to improvements of plant availability and the resultant sharp reduction in the usage of open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs).

Preliminary figures indicate steady improvement in energy availability factor (EAF), which stands at 76.37% financial year to date as at 03 May 2016. The monthly EAF has been improving steadily from October 2015 (69.87%) to April 2016 (76.25%)

Although no load shedding is anticipated this winter and beyond, we urge all customers to continue using electricity sparingly at all times.

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

Issued by Eskom