Eskom shares its summer plan to keep the lights on
While electricity demand in summer is generally lower than in winter, the summer period comes with its own challenges.
No load shedding was implemented during the winter period, and while it is not expected over summer, the risk remains as the system is still tight and vulnerable.
The change in customer electricity consumption in summer means sustained demand throughout the day and not just over the evening peak as people use air conditioning for cooling.
Eskom also ramps up planned maintenance over the summer period, taking advantage of the overall reduced demand in electricity. The objectives over the next seven months is to avoid load shedding while working hard at keeping unplanned breakdowns below 9 500 MW.
“Our objective over summer is to avoid load shedding, to sustain our plant performance and to continue to maintain our plant in order to avoid unplanned breakdowns. While the risk of load shedding always exists, we remain confident that we are on course to keeping the lights on for South Africa this summer,” said Chief Operating Officer, Jan Oberholzer.
Eskom has not implemented load shedding since 23 March 2019 partly due to the successful implementation of the 9-point generation recovery plan which saw energy availability increasing from 67.7 in April 2019 to 70.39 at the end of August 2019.
The demand in electricity was lower for most of winter due to warmer weather and the economic climate with other emergency resources such as demand response products and uninterruptible contracts (ILS) also contributed significantly towards morning and evening demand peak shaving.
- Eskom customers are advised to continue to using electricity sparingly throughout the day by doing the following:
- Set air-conditioners’ average temperature in summer at 23ºC
- Be energy efficient and change your light bulbs to energy efficient lights/LED’s
- Use the cold water tap rather than using the geyser every time
- Set your swimming pool pump cycle to run twice a day, three hours at a time for
optimal energy use. - At the end of the day, turn off computers, copiers, printers and fax machines at the
switch. Avoid standby or sleep mode.
