<\/p>\n
The Energy Availability Factor reached 67.78% between April 1 and September 10, up from 61.71% during the same period last year. Unplanned outages fell from 26.61% to 19.43%.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Improved plant reliability returned about 3 500MW to the grid compared with the previous year. Average unplanned outages have declined by 7 026MW over three years, from 16 212MW to 9 186MW.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Diesel expenditure fell 80.94%, from about $368 million to $70 million. The conversions use an exchange rate of approximately $1 to R16.10.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Generation from open-cycle gas turbines reached 146.81GWh, about 85.33% lower than a year earlier. The load factor for the diesel-powered plants dropped from 7.56% to 1.11%, remaining below the 3% annual target.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eskom said stronger generation performance had also supported environmental improvements at coal-fired power stations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Particulate matter emissions declined about 67%, from 0.96kg\/MWh sent out at the end of March to 0.32kg\/MWh. Performance improved beyond Eskom\u2019s target of 0.35kg\/MWh.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Twelve of Eskom\u2019s 14 coal-fired power stations are meeting station-specific particulate matter targets, with interventions continuing at the remaining facilities.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The utility has recorded 483 consecutive days without load-shedding since May 16, 2025, supported by lower breakdowns, additional generation capacity and reduced dependence on emergency resources.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Planned maintenance averaged 5 965MW, or 12.6% of generation capacity, compared with 5 219MW and 11.18% during the corresponding period last year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eskom also reported progress in reducing load shedding, which is used in areas affected by illegal connections, meter tampering and overloaded infrastructure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
About 1.2 million customers have returned to normal supply, while 6.5% of Eskom customers remain affected. Seven provinces are free from load reduction.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The programme has removed 571 of the targeted 971 feeders from load reduction. Eskom has also installed 513 022 smart meters, reaching 89% of the target for high-priority areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, resistance, intimidation and work stoppages have delayed more than 122 000 planned installations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eskom aims to eliminate load reduction nationally by March 2027.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":43451,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-45309","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa's (SA) power producer, Eskom, has cut diesel expenditure by about $298 million as improved coal-fleet performance reduced reliance on emergency generation and lifted energy availability to a six-year high.","published_date":"","news_description":"South Africa's (SA) power producer, Eskom, has cut diesel expenditure by about $298 million as improved coal-fleet performance reduced reliance on emergency generation and lifted energy availability to a six-year high.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45310,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45309\/revisions\/45310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}