Eskom load shedding today

To avoid load shedding Eskom has been relyign heavily on Open Cycle Gas Turbines that run on diesel, this comes at huge cost to the power utility. CEO André De ...

Theft and vandalism is also a challenge for the distribution business. Eskom has had to resort to burning diesel in its Open Cycle Gas Turbines to maintain generation capacity. Planned maintenance stands at 10.23% against the target of 10.5% for the financial year 2022. The first contributor was a delayed investment decision by government to procure new capacity. About 28% of capacity has been taken off the grid through unplanned maintenance. But the lack of generation capacity is hampering this. Transmission managing director Segomoco Scheppers indicates that the energy dispatched is 1.6% lower than it was last year. Eskom's Sere Wind Farm has been reliable in terms of performance, Scheppers clarified. Oberholzer explains that the global fuel prices have impacted Eskom's diesel spend. Eskom is doing the necessary maintenance to ensure the machines can remain on load. Whereas, the existing coal plants are close to transmission lines. Since January there have been 32 days of load shedding, outnumbering that for the same period last year.