Question NW128 to the Minister in The Presidency for Electricity
01 March 2024 - NW128
Cebekhulu, Inkosi RN to ask the Minister in The Presidency for Electricity
Considering that during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on 8 February 2024, the President, Mr M C Ramaphosa, promised the nation that loadshedding will soon be a thing of the past, and noting that following the SONA the Republic’s loadshedding stages escalated to stage 6, what are the full, relevant details of (a) all functional power plants across the Republic and (b) the plans that are in place to ensure that the electricity generated at the specified power plants will align with the promise that the President made on 8 February 2024?
Reply:
In contextualising the Energy Availability Factor (EAF), one needs to understand the following equation:
EAF=100% Generation Available Capacity-% Unplanned Capability Load Factor (UCLF)-% Planned Capability Load Factor (PCLF) -% Other Capability Load Factor (OCLF).This means that the EAF is dependent on three variables, namely, Planned maintenance, Unplanned Outages as well as other outages. When either of these variables changes, the EAF is impacted negatively or positively depending on whether the variables increase or decrease respectively.
The EAF shown below depicts our performance over the past eight (8) years and also reflects the improvement when comparing January 2023 and January 2024. From January 2023 to January 2024, the unplanned outages have been decreasing as depicted on the graph below. In January 2023, UCLF was at 34% but it was 30% in January 2024. Other outages also saw a declining trend. These other outages are unpredictable and outside management's control.
On the other hand, planned maintenance increased from September 2023 to December 2023 and January 2024. These outages are within management control in terms of whether to implement them or not and are essential for safety, statutory and performance improvement reasons. It does, however, mean that as planned maintenance necessarily increases, then EAF decreases. For example, planned maintenance was at 17.6% in January 2024 vs 13.5% in January 2023
(b) (i) The Eskom Board has approved the Generation plant recovery programme which details actions per power station that are in alignment with the President’s statement made during SONA.
(ii) Government has implemented the Energy Action Plan which also looks at energy crisis or resolutions. This runs at a government level and involves private business.