Eskom has said its implementation of the winter plan has worked well and has left South Africa with low risk of load shedding.
The last time the country was hit by rotational power cuts was in March.
Eskom’s head of generation Andrew Etzinger said despite the resignation of the utility’s CEO Phakamani Hadebe, the plan is in full swing.
Energy expert Chris Yelland says a lot of effort has been put into increase maintenance.
“We must give credit where credit is due. The energy availability factor has increased from a low of 60% to 70%, that brings an extra 4 000 megawatts of generation capacity onto the grid, available to meet demand. That is good news.
“Some other news which is no necessarily good news but helps avoid load shedding is that as of 1 June Eskom’s winter prices kick in, this means the price of electricity during peak period for industrial customers is three times higher….so this means energy intensive users are really disincentivised from using electricity.
“The combination of increased availability and decreased demand is enough to get us through this winter, I believe.”
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