Eskom says the power system continues to operate reliably, showing ongoing resilience in effectively meeting winter electricity demand.

“When occasional system constraints arise, they are effectively managed through the strategic deployment of emergency reserves during morning and evening peak periods,” the power utility said on Friday.

Since May 15, there has been no loadshedding, with only 26 hours recorded between April 1 and July 24.

With 37 days of Eskom’s Winter Outlook period still remaining, Eskom said the system remains well-positioned to maintain stability and meet demand effectively.

“As of today [Friday], unplanned outages are at 11 695MW and the available generation capacity is 30 236MW. Tonight’s electricity demand is expected to reach 27 715MW. The current capacity is sufficient to meet both today’s demand and anticipated requirements over the weekend.

“During the week of  July 18 to 24, planned maintenance averaged 5 050MW. Over the same period, the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) ranged between 62% and 66%, with the month-to-date average further increasing to 63.11%,” Eskom said.

To further strengthen grid stability, Eskom is planning to return a total of 3 960MW of generation capacity to service ahead of the evening peak on Monday, July 28, and throughout the coming week.

Between April 1 and July 24, the Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF), which measures the percentage of generation capacity lost due to unplanned outages, decreased to 28.99%.

This marks a reduction of an ~0.5% compared to the previous week but remains about 2.4% higher than the 26.60% recorded during the same period last year.

“As of Thursday, the UCLF stood at 23.79%, consistently indicating a notable improvement in performance. The open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) load factor decreased this week, reaching 1.86%, down from the 8.6% recorded during the previous week ( 11 to 17 July). This indicates less reliance on OCGTs,” Eskom said.

From April 1 to July 24, diesel spend remains within the budget allocated for April 1 to July 31.

“The Winter Outlook, published on May 5, covering the period ending August 31, remains valid. It indicates that loadshedding will not be necessary if unplanned outages stay below 13 000MW. If outages rise to 15 000MW, loadshedding would be limited to a maximum of 21 days out of 153 days and restricted to Stage 2,” Eskom said.

The power utility has encouraged all South Africans to use electricity efficiently throughout the winter season.

To help manage household electricity consumption, Eskom customers are encouraged to use the Eskom Residential Calculator, a convenient tool for tracking and optimising energy usage: https://www.eskom.co.za/distribution/residential-calculator/