Cape Town — Minister of Electricity, Kgotsientso Ramokgopa, has criticised Eskom’s former CEO, Andre De Ruyter, saying Eskom’s impressive turnaroound was planned and not sudden.
Ramokgopa delivered an update on the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) at the Kusile Power Station where he revealed Eskom has hit the 70% mark on the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) for the first time since 2021, The Citizen reported.
“As I stand before you today, the energy availability factor of Eskom has breached the 70% mark. The last time we achieved this was in August 2021 and it now stands at 70.78%.” he said.
He also revealed that the Kusile Power Station is currently operating at an EAF of 93%, due to the addition of extra megawatts to the grid.
Ramokgopa responded to De Ruyter’s claims that Eskom was able to keep the lights on by “pouring money into diesel at a rate of knots”.
“We have seen in the public domain there are those who are beginning to find their voice. They’ve been here at Eskom [and] were meant to achieve these numbers [but] because of exceptional levels of incompetence, they’ve not been able to achieve this.” Ramokgopa said.
Today @Eskom_SA achieves an EAF of 70.78%. This milestone was last attained in August of 2021. Congratulations to the competent, committed and patriotic men and women at @Eskom_SA. The end of loadshedding is within reach. #LeaveNoOneBehind🇿🇦#EnergyActionPlan
— Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa (@Kgosientsho_R) May 13, 2024
Energy expert, Chris Yellend, said the importance of understanding the timeframe over which the 70% EAF was assessed but also acknowledged the country was moving in the right direction.
“You need to state such if you look at an energy availability factor over a short period, it is meaningless. We are not out of the woods yet. We may go through good periods and have some setbacks. I don’t think we should assume it’s all over because it’s not. But at least there’s some light and direction.” Yelland said.
Yelland said data showed diesel usage had been high in January, February and March but had decreased in April and May.
“We should not be burning the amount of diesel we have been burning; it is expensive and bad for the budget. But it came down in April and it has come down very significantly in May, which is a good sign. “Eskom should work to keep it that way,” he said.
🎥[WATCH – EAP BRIEFING]: Loadshedding has been suspended for 47 consecutive days during which time OCGT usage has been lower than the same time as last year – Diesel is not being used to keep the lights on pic.twitter.com/4BCotTWTTI
— Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa (@Kgosientsho_R) May 13, 2024
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
