Eskom power generation stats paint bleakest picture to date

November 2022 News

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has released its annual statistics on power generation in South Africa for the first half of 2022. Load shedding and energy availability factor (EAF) data were also provided up until 30 September 2022.

The statistics include all utility-scale generation technologies in the analysis. These include coal, nuclear, hydro, solar photovoltaic (PV), onshore wind, concentrated solar power (CSP), pumped storage and diesel-fuelled open cycle gas turbines.

In the first half of 2022, the total system demand was similar to the year before, but still 3,0 TWh (2,5%) below the pre-lockdown levels of 2019. Coal still dominates the South African energy mix, providing more than 80% of the total system load. The contribution of renewable energy technologies (wind, solar PV and CSP) increased in 2022 to a total of 6,2 GW installed capacity and provided 6,5% of the total energy mix

The Eskom fleet EAF continued its declining trend in 2022, with an average EAF of 59,4%, compared to the EAF of 61,7% for 2021 and 65% for 2020. This is largely due to the increase in unplanned outages (detailed by the unplanned capacity loss factor) experienced by Eskom. This year overtook 2021 as the most load shedding-intensive year yet, concentrated in July and September.

September 2022, the worst load shedding month ever, surpassed the entirety of 2020. This year’s Stage 6 loadshedding also far surpassed 2019’s, the only other year that had Stage 6.

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