Writer and software developer Gareth Dwyer has launched an online portal that simplifies data from Eskom’s own statistics dashboard and other sources to make it easier to understand the utility’s present operational situation.
The Unofficial Eskom Data Portal tracks a number of variables in Eskom’s operations — including generation, energy availability factors (EAFs), load-shedding, and electricity demand — in 20 simple readable graphs and charts.
While Eskom also provides much of this data on its website, its presentation sometimes falls short for general public consumption, especially for people who don’t regularly work with statistics or electricity jargon.
Dwyer has also aggregated some information from other sources, including Eskom’s media statements and Twitter feed, Integrated results, presentations, weekly system status reports, and EskomSePush.
One of the interesting graphs from the unofficial portal showed Eskom’s electricity demand in 2024 trending between 1,000–2,000MW below 2023’s demand.
The lowered demand is well known and has been one of the underlying contributors to significantly less load-shedding than in 2023.
The graph below shows how Eskom’s electricity demand has fluctuated month-to-month between 2019 and 2024.
The demand reduction has been attributed to several factors — including less economic activity and more households and businesses switching to self-generation with solar-powered installations.
Eskom itself previously told MyBroadband that the surge in rooftop solar adoption in 2022 and 2023 had helped put a dent in load-shedding.
The utility’s calculations showed that this newer form of distributed generation had increased its contribution from about 2,265MW in July 2022 to 5,204MW in December 2023.
This correlated with an analysis by a senior economist at Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies, Gaylor Montmasson-Clair.
He calculated South Africa had around 5,200MW (5.2GW) of private solar capacity by the end of 2023, double the 2,600MW installed by the end of 2022.
Rooftop solar’s important new contribution could become a major challenge in the coming months as large parts of the country will have significantly fewer hours of sunshine, especially the Western Cape, a winter rainfall region.
At the same time, general electricity demand picks up over the winter as people turn on power-hungry electric heaters, and the energy required to boil water in kettles or geysers increases due to lower temperatures.
EAF slightly improved — but still well off target
Dwyer’s average EAF graph also contains some interesting trends.
The EAF is generally regarded as a good measure of the state of Eskom’s generating fleet.
It shows the proportion of Eskom’s total installed generating capacity that can supply power to Eskom’s grid at a given time.
Eskom has recorded a slight decrease in unplanned outages in recent weeks but has increased planned maintenance, so the overall EAF has remained relatively flat.
However, there was a big improvement in the EAF for April 2024 compared to April 2023, with the average climbing to 57.04% compared to the 51.69% measured in the previous year.
This was nearly at the same level as 2022 but a far cry from the 67.79% of 2019.
It is also substantially lower than the 65% EAF target that Eskom’s board was tasked with achieving from the utility by the end of March 2024.
The graph below shows how Eskom’s average EAF shifted month-to-month from 2019 to 2024.
Loading ...
Join the conversation Autoload comments
Comments section policy: MyBroadband has a new article comments policy which aims to encourage constructive discussions. To get your comments published, make sure it is civil and adds value to the discussion.