South Africa’s electricity public utility Eskom has announced the near-completion of Kusile Unit 6’s commissioning process under Generation Recovery Plan. The achievement signifies that South Africa is one step closer to introduce an additional 800MW to the national grid. It is a significant contribution to stabilise the electricity supply of the country and bolstered the economy.
Reportedly, Kusile Unit 6’s commissioning marks a turning point in Eskom’s efforts to address the energy crisis of South Africa.
As per the sources, the load-shedding was suspended for 268 consecutive days from March 2024. The focus of utility has shifted to strengthened the reliability of its generation fleet through improved operational performance that increased maintenance and strategic planning.
Furthermore, Eskom has launched ‘Save Your Transformers, Save Lives’ campaign that aims to raise awareness about the risks that are majorly associated with illegal connections. It also considers importance of community cooperation that maintains a stable power supply.
Eskom’s Generation Recovery Plan
The plan has been introduced to combat the ongoing energy challenges that has shown measurable progress. The Eskom utility has reported significant achievements that included an 8% reduction in unplanned outages when compared to the same period last year.
Eskom utility improvement aims to target maintenance activities during the December summer break when many similar industries temporarily shut down the operations.
This has also achieved diesel savings of R16.06 billion every year that remarks 65.4% reduction from the R24.57 billion which they spent during the same time period, last year. It is very critical to save this, yet Eskom continues to manage the limited resources effectively while striving to improve electricity availability.
How Kusile Unit 6 Impacts Energy Supply of South Africa?
The successful commissioning of Kusile Unit 6 is a critical step towards stabilising the energy supply of South Africa and made a great impact.
Once it becomes fully operational, the unit will add 800MW to the grid and reduced the pressure on existing infrastructure of Eskom and provided the much-needed relief to businesses and households.
Eskom released a statement and highlighted that this milestone reflects its commitment to advance the Generation Recovery Plan and address the structural challenges within the energy sector. The utility also reaffirmed its dedication to conquer a load-shedding-free summer and to achieve a goal outlined in its Summer Outlook for 2024-25.
Notably, Eskom continues to collaborate and work closely with industry stakeholders as well as with the local communities. Together they will address challenges such as illegal connections, vandalism and theft of network equipment.
The utility has urged customers to purchase electricity only from authorised vendors to protect the integrity of the power network and prevent over loading.