Koeberg Nuclear Power Station is a nuclear power station in South Africa and the only one on the African continent. It is located 30 km north of Cape Town, near Melkbosstrand on the west coast. Its Unit 2 came into production on December 30. Photographer: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
Edward West
edward.west@inll.co.za
Eskom continues to meet electricity demand and is not likely to implement load shedding, at least until the end of March this year.
The utility has reached 282 consecutive days without load shedding since March 26, last year after improving the performance of its Generation units. Investment in a Generation Recovery Plan and better maintenance has also resulted in year-to-date diesel savings of R16.52 billion, it said in a statement on Friday night.
In August, Eskom shared its outlook from September 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, predicting a likely scenario of a load shedding-free summer.
"This outlook remains unchanged. Our year-to-date unplanned outages average is 11 906MW, which is 1 094MW less than our 2024 summer base case of 13 000MW," Eskom said.
On December 30, the Generation Recovery Plan enabled the successful return of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station's Unit 2 generation unit to the national grid.
This follows extensive upgrades as part of a programme to extend the unit's operational lifespan by 20 years.
"We are in the process of ramping up the unit to its full capacity of 930MW, in accordance with operational procedures. We anticipate reaching full load by mid-January 2025, provided each step meets our commissioning procedure."
Combined, Koeberg’s Units 1 and 2 will supply 1 860MW, playing a pivotal role in reducing load shedding and stabilising the grid.
Unplanned outages remain on a downward trend at ~8.1% compared to the same period last year. Diesel savings were 65.2% less than the R25.34bn spent during the same period last year. Diesel usage also remains below the year-to-date budget.
Eskom's Energy Availability Factor (EAF) averaged 54.65% over the week to Friday due to increased planned maintenance, with Medupi, Kusile and all peaking stations achieving an average EAF of 60% and above. The year-to-date EAF is at 62.17%.
Ongoing planned maintenance at 8 733MW was in line with the summer strategy to further improve the reliability of the stations in preparation for winter 2025 and beyond.
December saw planned maintenance average at over 8 000MW as Eskom utilised the summer break to increase maintenance activities, as many industries took a recess.
The strategic use of peaking stations, including pumped storage and OCGTs (open cycle gas turbine), remained key in managing electricity demand during peak times, particularly during evening peaks, Eskom said.
While load shedding remains suspended, Eskom said it continues to face network overloading issues in certain local areas, due to illegal connections, vandalism, meter tampering, unauthorised network operations, theft of network equipment, and purchasing electricity from unlicensed vendors.