Cape Town – The chairperson of Eskom, Mpho Makwana, says changes in the company’s management structure have led to improvements in plant performance and a reduction in blackouts.
Eskom’s power generation capacity has increased to 60.5% compared to 56% a year ago, despite concerns of severe blackouts during the winter season, Bloomberg News quoted Makwana as saying.
He attributed the improvements to scrapping the position of chief operating officer and giving more authority to individual plant managers, the report said.
The availability of electricity has also been aided by higher tariffs, reduced demand, improved maintenance, and increased diesel supply, he said.
Makwana believed Eskom would continue to make progress and expects the energy availability factor to potentially reach 70% by 2025.
Speaking during a media briefing last week, the Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the last time the energy availability factor (EAF) in the country was this high was in September 2022 and the increase would mean lower stages of load shedding.
He said there was a plan in place to improve the situation and ensure that all power stations are running smoothly
“Government is making significant, yet marginal, progress in relation to the improvement of the plan, which intends to better the performance of Eskom’s power stations in order to ensure energy security.”
The minister said there has been a reduction in unplanned losses to less than 16 000MW, from over 18 000MW. In addition, planned maintenance has been reduced to approximately 2 500MW.
[Read] Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has attributed the reduced stages of load shedding to Eskom’s improved generation over the past week https://t.co/urU7OccckM pic.twitter.com/nfdG7sslu2
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
