Eskom has slashed its diesel usage cutting it from R28.70 billion last year to R17.57 billion this month.
The power utility has attributed this improvement to the stability of its system.
“Year-to-date savings continue and have reached R17.57 billion. This is 61.2% less than the R28.70 billion spent last year and an improvement of R1.03 billion from the previous week,” said Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokoena.
The utility said the milestone comes as load-shedding continues to be suspended from 1 April 2024 to 15 February, translating to 318 days compared to the same period last year when the country experienced 2 043 hours of blackouts. In addition, Mokoena said a total of 4 261 megawatts will be returned to service before the evening peak on Monday to further stabilize the grid. According to the utility, the summer outlook from September last year to the end of March this year remains unchanged.
“The ongoing planned maintenance at 7 755 MW aligns with our summer maintenance strategy which aims to further improve reliability in preparation for winter 2025 and beyond,” remarked Mokoena.
Eskom said over the past week, average unplanned outages reduced to 780 MW showing a significant improvement of 4 919 MW compared to the same period last year.
“As of today, unplanned outages stand at 11 471 MW while available generation capacity is 28 355 MW, sufficient to meet the forecasted peak demand of 24 445 MW,” highlighted Mokoena. Despite these achievements, Eskom urged customers to continue using electricity sparingly.