Unplanned outages jumped to 5‚837 Megawatts (MW) on October 4 from 5‚304MW on October 1‚ Eskom said in its 77th system status bulletin.
Eskom’s internal benchmark is to have no more than 3‚600MW in unplanned maintenance‚ a benchmark it has so far missed almost 60% of the time this year.
The last time it achieved this benchmark or below was on August 14.
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.
Peak evening demand is expected to ease this coming week from 34‚288MW on September 6 to 31‚395MW on Monday‚ 31‚284MW on Tuesday and 31‚244 MW on Wednesday.
On August 7 Gauteng experienced its first widespread snowfalls since September 1981.
The highest actual peak demand this year of 35‚527MW took place on August 7.
The peak demand so far this year was supposed to be 36‚258MW on July 16 according to the 54th system status bulletin. Demand side management‚ which involves asking large industrial users to temporarily stop some industrial processes‚ meant that the actual peak demand was only 35‚443MW or a saving of 815MW on July 16. - I-Net Bridge