THERE was some good news about South Africa’s electricity capacity crisis in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).
Although the MTBPS confirmed that total Eskom power cuts to end-September 2023 already exceeded the figure for the entire 2022 calendar year, it stressed that load shedding hours have declined quarter by quarter this year due to improved plant performance.
It said Eskom recently returned two units to service at Kusile, adding 1 600MW of electricity capacity to the grid, with a further 1 600 MW added to the grid by the end of this year through the return of two more units to service.
“The energy availability factor has risen from an average of 53 percent in the first quarter of 2023 to nearly 60 percent at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” it said. moneyweb.co.za