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State-owned electricity group Eskom is warning that its use of the country’s diesel-fuelled open cycle gas-turbines (OCGT) is set to remain elevated in the coming months as the utility seeks to avoid load-shedding in a context of rising planned maintenance and the ongoing risk of unplanned breakdowns. Eskom has already spent R5.5-billion for the year-to-date to run its own OCGT plants and a further R3-billion to purchase electricity form the private Avon and Dedisa plants, as the energy availability factor (EAF) from its coal fleet slumped to 62.9% against a target of 70%.

Maintenance deferred due to budget constraints.

A worst-case scenario will result in Eskom having to spend R7.5bn for the seven months up to the end of August on running open-cycle gas turbines to keep load-shedding at stage 2 for no more than 90 days.

A worst-case scenario will result in Eskom having to spend R7.5bn for the seven months up to the end of August on running open-cycle gas turbines to keep load-shedding at stage 2 for no more than 90 days.

While Eskom continues to make major positive strides and delivering key milestones in its plan to operational recovery, the road to sustainability will still be long and hard. Major projects and outages undertaken this year will continue to exert pressure on the supply side, raising the risk of loadshedding in the short term. These outages, however, are necessary interventions that will deliver long term benefits and the security of energy supply. “Despite our good performance in recent weeks, particularly over the festive season, surpassing that of the previous quarter as well as the sa...