SA electricity consumption (available for distribution) fell by 3.9% year on year (y/y) in October‚ Statistics SA (Stats SA) data showed on Thursday.
This was the eighth consecutive month of y/y declines and brought the decline for the first ten months of the year to 2.6% y/y.
Electricity production was down 1.9% y/y in October and fell by 1.8% y/y in the first ten months as Eskom battles with an ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations. The first unit of the new Medupi power station is only due to come online towards the end of next year.
That is why Eskom has asked consumers to cut their electricity consumption by 10%.
In addition to increased industrial demand after the switch to cheaper summer tariffs on September 1‚ Eskom is also battling with supply issues as the 900MW Unit 2 of the Koeberg nuclear power station was shut down for routine maintenance and refuelling‚ while there were reduced imports from the 1‚500MW Cahora Bassa hydro-electric dam in Mozambique since mid—July because of a fault on the transmission infrastructure.
This meant that electricity imports plunged by 50.5% y/y in October according to Stats SA‚ while exports fell by 5.7% y/y over the same period.
According to the World Bank Enterprise Survey 2011‚ Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the main regions where firms identify electricity supply as a major constraint. SSA is also the region with the highest percentage of electricity provided by generators. Deficiencies in energy infrastructure occur in electricity production‚ transmission and distribution.
The Western Cape was the only province to show a y/y increase in consumption in October. - I-Net Bridge