Eskom said the power system remains stable with sufficient capacity to meet the long weekend’s demand.
There are also enough emergency reserves to meet peak demand.
Eskom’s Daphne Mokoena, said ongoing planned maintenance is up by 3,8%, compared to the same time last year.
“The high level of planned maintenance, aims to enhance fleet reliability for the anticipated increased peak winter demand, while ensuring compliance with environmental and regulatory requirements. Currently, 8,974MW of the generation capacity is under planned maintenance” said Mokoena.
Facts and figures
Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF), or unplanned outages, for the financial year-to- date (1 to 17 April 2025), are at 27.48%, down by ~2.7% from 30.15% achieved in the same period last year.
The OCGT load factor declined to 9.78% during the past week (11 to 17 April 2025), marking a significant decrease from 29.95%, recorded in the week of 4 to 11 April 2025. However, it remains above the 7.9% observed during the same period last year. This reduction highlights a growing shift away from reliance on diesel.
Unplanned outages have decreased by 202MW, currently at 11,362MW compared to 11,564MW last week.
The available generation capacity is at 27,299MW.
From 1 to 17 April 2025, the year-to-date EAF was at 56.63%, about the same compared to the same period last year (57.67%), mainly due to higher planned maintenance.
From 1 to 17 April 2025, Eskom spent approximately R1.67 billion on fuel for the Open-Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) fleet, generating 284.40GWh.
This is higher than the 109.41GWh generated during the same period last year. This is expected to decrease as maintenance activities begin to slow down.
The OCGT load was at 20.42%, representing a 7.45% decrease from the previous week, ending the 17 April 2025.