Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says Eskom has reached the highest level of planned maintenance in three years, which effectively means the power utility is less reliant on diesel to operate Open-Cycle Gas Turbines or OCGTs and able to keep the lights on for longer.
Ramokgopa said the energy availability factor had breached 70% and that as a result of the improvements, there was now little reliance on OCGTs.
As a result, Eskom was using less diesel.
"When we went into December of 2023, transitioning into January 2024, we reached the highest level of planned maintenance. We took out 18% of the total generation capacity into planned maintenance and these units are coming back.
“We said we are going to use the periods of low demand to go aggressively into planned maintenance as we prepare for the winter periods. As we go into winter, these units are coming back," Ramokgopa said.
He slammed reports that Eskom's recent success are due to the usage of diesel for the OCGTs. Ramokgopa said the energy availability factor has breached 70%.
"The last time we achieved this was in 2021," he said adding that this was due to the exceptional work undertaken by Eskom management and staff.
Last week, Eskom rubbished media reports that the electricity provider has excessively used diesel to avert load shedding.
At the time, Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the continuous suspension of load shedding was due to sufficient generation capacity, resulting from a more reliable generation fleet.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) further disputed a media report claiming that Eskom had spent more than half of its quarterly budget on diesel.
Nersa further distanced itself from the article adding that despite the regulator submitting responses to questions put forward by the publication, answers were “deliberately used to write and publish an incorrect and misleading article.”
Meanwhile, in a statement on Sunday, Eskom confirmed the continued suspension of load shedding.
“The notable and consistent improvements in generation performance has enabled the continued suspension of load shedding, which has not been implemented for 46 days. The suspension is primarily due to the continued, sustained improvement in generation performance, owing to extensive planned maintenance during the summer period and the implementation of the Generation Operational Recovery Plan, which commented in March last year,” Mokwena said.
She added that there has been no increased usage in the OCGTs.
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