{"id":820890,"date":"2025-04-14T17:15:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=820890"},"modified":"2025-04-14T17:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:15:11","slug":"andre-de-ruyters-comment-about-eskom-becoming-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/820890\/andre-de-ruyters-comment-about-eskom-becoming-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Andre de Ruyter’s comment about Eskom becoming true"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom\u2019s latest operational data revealed that Eskom is burning more diesel than at the height of load-shedding, raising concerns about the power utility\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, 11 April 2025, Eskom celebrated that load-shedding remained suspended, claiming that the power system remained stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEmergency reserves are adequate and being used strategically to meet peak demand,\u201d Eskom said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that it performed a high level of planned maintenance to enhance fleet reliability for the anticipated peak winter demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, 7,402 megawatts of Eskom\u2019s generation capacity was under planned maintenance, giving a glimpse into maintenance load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It revealed that from 1 to 10 April 2025, the year-to-date energy availability factor (EAF) stands at 56.11%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The energy availability factor shows the percentage of time the power station was available for use when it was needed. It is a core measure of performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom\u2019s EAF for the 2025 financial year is lower than the same period last year, which Eskom said was due to higher planned maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the power utility promised South Africa that it would reach 70% by the end of March 2025, which is needed to stop load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 22 January 2023, Eskom chair Mpho Makwana said they had embarked on a turnaround journey to improve plant performance and reduce load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They set an energy availability factor target of 60% by March 2023, 65% by March 2024, and 70% by March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati also told South Africans that load-shedding would be history by the end of March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He cited Eskom\u2019s extensive two-year maintenance plan, from March 2023 to March 2025, as the solution to South Africa\u2019s rolling blackouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of that plan is when we can come back, the Minister, myself, and the CEO, and communicate to South Africa that there\u2019s not going to be load-shedding,\u201d Nyati said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judgment day has arrived, and Eskom fell far short of its availability factor target of 70% to end load-shedding for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eskom burning diesel at the rate of knots<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eskom revealed that from 1 to 10 April 2025, it spent approximately R1.34 billion on fuel for the Open-Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power utility generated 228.33GWh during this period using OCGTs, which is much higher than the 64.09GWh generated during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom added that it spent R3.6 billion on diesel over the past 30 days, representing a 2.5% decrease compared to the previous 30-day period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data showed that Eskom\u2019s diesel use in the 2025 calendar year is much higher than at the height of load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It showed that Eskom\u2019s coal generation plants could not meet demand, so it relies on burning billions in diesel to keep the lights on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This data substantiates former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter\u2019s claims that the only reason for no load-shedding was that the power utility burned diesel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Ruyter made this claim<\/a><\/strong> during his keynote address at the PSG Financial Services Annual Conference in May 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the lights are on, it is because they are pouring a considerable amount of money into diesel at a rate of knots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His claims were debatable at the time as Eskom\u2019s diesel use was declining. However, recent data shows that this trend has reversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest year-to-date data, from 1 January to 13 April, showed that Eskom\u2019s average daily diesel usage has increased every year since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diesel generation increased from 118 MWh in 2021 to the current average daily diesel generation of 518 MWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charts below show Eskom\u2019s year-to-date OCGT power generation from the 2021 to 2025 calendar years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

South Africans should prepare for load-shedding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many energy experts, including Chris Yelland and Anton Eberhard, warned that South Africans should expect load-shedding in winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eberhard highlighted that Eskom\u2019s energy availability factor averaged between 55% and 58% this year, which was way below their generation recovery plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiesel-fired power stations’ use has peaked, and emergency plants have been running hard recently,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eberhard hinted that this data showed that more load-shedding and power cuts were on their way in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yelland also said<\/a><\/strong> Eskom\u2019s lower-than-expected EAF raised concerns over load-shedding during winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEAF has been pretty flat for the year to date, averaging 58.85%, which is much lower than forecast in the Generation Recovery Plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the last two weeks, the energy availability factor has dropped below the EAF for the same period last year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this trend continues and the EAF does not significantly increase as demand increases with the onset of colder weather, we will likely experience some load-shedding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter claimed that the only reason the lights were on was that the power utility burned diesel at a rate of knots. This is now becoming a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":808316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[20304,1164,19924,22281],"class_list":["post-820890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-andre-de-ruyter","tag-eskom","tag-load-shedding-2","tag-open-cycle-gas-turbines-ocgts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820890"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":820913,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820890\/revisions\/820913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}