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Eskom said its outlook for the winter period represents a marked improvement from the previous year.
Top brass from the power utility on Friday outlined details of the Generation Operational Recovery Plan, approved by the Board and initiated in March last year.
The utility said together with strategic investment in planned maintenance during the summer, this "has collectively enhanced the performance of our generation fleet."
"This strategic approach, which focuses on people, plant performance, processes and governance, is being delivered by the unwavering dedication and tireless efforts of our staff in partnership with the government’s NECOM structures," Eksom said.
Winter 2024
"For winter 2024, Eskom anticipates limiting load shedding to Stage 2, with reduced unplanned outages expected to range from 14 000MW to 15 500MW and a maximum of 17 000MW of unplanned outages at Stage 5 load shedding.
"This forecast is a marked improvement from winter 2023, which predicted unplanned outages ranging from 15 000MW to 16 500MW and a maximum of 18 000MW—a scenario where the maximum unplanned outages, or Stage 8, was successfully avoided," the utility said.
In a lengthy statement, Eskom said a "promising trend emerged" in the summer period, "with most instances of unplanned outages contained between 14 000MW and 15 500MW, resulting in load shedding stages 2 to 4.
It said load shedding was suspended for 37 days and the utility said it would "continue to strive to maintain this positive trend for the winter of 2024, aiming to keep unplanned outages within a range that "will translate to a maximum of Stage 2 load shedding."
Eskom said currently, there have been 30 consecutive days without load shedding, "a milestone last achieved on 10 April 2022, when we marked 28 consecutive days without load shedding."
The Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, said the investment in planned maintenance during the summer period, had collectively led to the following notable achievements which contribute to the optimistic outlook for this winter and our current performance:
* A 9% reduction in unplanned load losses from April 2023 to March 2024.
* A 19.2% reduction in unit trips between 2023 and 2024 financial years, indicating an increasingly more reliable generation fleet and availability of power supply.
*The restoration of three Kusile units that were offline since October 2022 and the synchronisation of Kusile Unit 5, collectively contributing an additional 3 200MW into the grid from September to December 2023.
*The successful completion of the Koeberg Unit 1 steam generator replacement as part of the Long-Term Operation project, which has restored 930MW of generation capacity.
*Progress on several projects aimed at minimising Partial Load Losses, including the cooling tower refurbishments at Kriel and Tutuka, and re-bagging at Majuba, with the completion of Tutuka units 1 and 2.
