Johannesburg: Eskom has reported a significant reduction in its diesel expenditure, spending at least 70% less year-on-year compared to the previous period, translating into savings exceeding R14 billion. This development comes as the power utility has successfully maintained a period of no load shedding for over seven months.

According to South African Government News Agency, the utility has recorded a year-on-year diesel savings of R14.6 billion, spending approximately 70.3% less than the R20.8 billion used during the same timeframe last year. The enhanced performance of the coal fleet is expected to contribute to further savings in the coming weeks and months. Eskom has also noted a significant decrease in unplanned outages at power stations, facilitating more planned maintenance activities.

Over the past week, the average total unplanned outages have decreased to 10,127MW, a substantial reduction from 16,892MW during the same period last year, marking a decrease of 6,765MW. This improvement allows Eskom
to conduct more planned maintenance, ensuring that more generation capacity is available to meet the country’s electricity demand.

Additionally, the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) has improved to 63.1% for the year to date, with at least four power stations achieving an EAF of over 70%. By Monday evening, Eskom expects an additional 4,050MW to return online, with four units on cold reserve over the weekend to help manage supply and demand balance.

Despite these improvements, Eskom continues to face challenges related to network overloading in certain areas due to illegal connections, vandalism, meter tampering, unauthorized network operations, and theft of network equipment. The utility urges customers to avoid illegal connections to prevent public safety hazards and potential load reduction measures.

Eskom advises consumers to purchase electricity only from authorized vendors and encourages the reporting of illegal activities to the Eskom Crime Line at 0800 112 722 or via WhatsApp at 081 333 3323.