Eskom's plants exceed 70% efficiency, ensuring stable winter supply
Eskom says its generation fleet is showing ongoing momentum with more than half of coal-fired power stations operating with an Energy Availability Factor (EAF) exceeding 70%.
Image credit: Fré Sonneveld on Unsplash
Some three stations are operating at an EAF of more than 90%.
“The power system continues to operate reliably, supported by an improved Energy Availability Factor, which reflects progress in plant performance and enables Eskom to meet winter electricity demand effectively.
“When system constraints do arise, they are managed through the targeted use of emergency reserves during morning and evening peak periods,” the power utility said.
South Africa has not experienced load shedding since May this year.
“With 30 days of Eskom’s winter outlook period still remaining, the system remains well-positioned to maintain stability and meet demand effectively.
“As of (Friday), unplanned outages stand at 8,525MW, the lowest level in recent history, narrowly surpassing the 8,258MW recorded on 28 October 2024. The available generation capacity currently stands at 30,882MW,” Eskom said.
The power utility is expected to return some 3075MW back to the grid over the next week.
"Between 1 April and 31 July 2025, the Unplanned Capability Loss Factor, which reflects the percentage of generation capacity lost due to unplanned outages, further decreased to 28.58%.
“This represents a week-on-week improvement of approximately 0.4%, although it remains about 2.3% higher than the 26.28% recorded during the same period last year.
“As of (Thursday), the UCLF had dropped below the 20% mark, reaching 19.94%, signalling a significant and consistent improvement in generation performance.
“The Winter Outlook…covering the period ending 31 August 2025, remains valid. It indicates that load shedding will not be necessary if unplanned outages stay below 13,000MW. If outages rise to 15,000MW, load shedding would be limited to a maximum of 21 days out of 153 days and restricted to Stage 2,” Eskom said.