Eskom‚ which has not implemented load shedding for the past eight months‚ says its plan is to continue implementing appropriate levels of planned maintenance to ensure long-term plant reliability.

This has resulted in a drastic reduction in unplanned maintenance and the number of breakdowns over the past eight months‚ positively impacting plant availability‚ with the resultant sharp reduction in the usage of open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs)‚ the electricity provider said.

“The generation performance for this week showed an improvement from last week. Unplanned outages stayed below the anticipated 6‚000MW‚” it added.

The most challenging day was Thursday when unplanned outages reached 5‚940MW‚ with the best day being Tuesday when unplanned outages clocked 3‚885MW.

“Our planned maintenance for the week averaged 5‚200MW‚ which is good for this time of the year.”

Unplanned outages for the week stood at 9.75% and planned outages at 10.07%.

“In terms of performance for the week‚ our energy availability factor (EAF) stands at 79.01%‚” the electricity parastatal said.

“Our year to date performance stands at 76.17% — EAF‚ 11.74% — unplanned outage and 10.94% — planned outages. In terms of our existing Generation Sustainability Strategy‚ our aim is to achieve 80% plant availability‚ 10% planned maintenance and 10% unplanned maintenance over the medium term.

“The week saw no OCGT usage at all‚ which is very good performance indeed. The month to date OCGT load factor stands at 0.35% which amounts to R9-million.

“For the weekend ahead‚ we will continue taking a conservative approach regarding opportunity maintenance‚” Eskom added.