{"id":824595,"date":"2025-05-19T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=824595"},"modified":"2025-05-19T11:21:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T09:21:39","slug":"andre-de-ruyters-damning-claim-about-eskom-becoming-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/824595\/andre-de-ruyters-damning-claim-about-eskom-becoming-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Andre de Ruyter’s damning claim about Eskom becoming reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom\u2019s latest operational data show that it is burning more diesel than ever before to keep the lights on, substantiating former Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few weeks, load-shedding made an unwelcome return. Last week, Eskom implemented stage 2 load-shedding during the evening peaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The load-shedding was not unexpected. From 9 to 15 May 2025, unplanned outages averaged 14,162 MW, representing an increase of 2,490 MW compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was 1,162 MW above Eskom\u2019s base case of 13,000 MW. Eskom warned that it has to implement load-shedding if breakdowns exceed 13,000 MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom\u2019s Winter Outlook, published on 5 May 2025, indicated that load-shedding would not be necessary if unplanned outages stay below 13,000 MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf outages rise to 15,000 MW, load shedding would be limited to a maximum of 21 days out of 153 days and restricted to Stage 2,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the financial year to date, from 1 April 2025 to 15 May 2025, average unplanned outages stand at 13,456 MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom explained that outage slips were the primary driver of the fluctuations in unplanned outages at its power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This occurs when a unit initially scheduled for planned maintenance is reclassified as unplanned because it exceeds the scheduled maintenance timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The higher unplanned outages, along with increased planned maintenance, caused the year-to-date energy availability factor (EAF) to drop to 56.97%, compared to 59.98% last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put this into perspective, Eskom planned to reach an EAF of 70% by March 2025, which would have signalled the end of load shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cIt will take at least two years to improve the energy availability factor from the current 58% to 70%,\u201d Makwana said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2024, Eskom reiterated its target to reach a 70% EAF by March 2025, which would ensure a stable energy supply and reduce diesel expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom Chairman Mteto Nyati also stated that their Generation Recovery Plan would be completed by 31 March 2025, marking the end of load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of March 2025, that\u2019s when the plan should have been executed,\u201d Nyati said earlier this year.<\/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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Eskom data showed that Eskom missed these targets by a wide margin, which means that South Africa still has to suffer through load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom burning more diesel than ever to keep the lights on<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eskom poor performance, including the high unplanned outages and low energy availability factor, is putting severe strain on the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To avoid higher levels of load shedding, Eskom is generating more electricity through its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, 16 May 2025, Eskom announced that it had spent approximately R2.85 billion on fuel for the OCGT fleet year-to-date, generating 478.63GWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a 171% increase in OCGT use compared to the same period last year, when it generated 176.85 GWh through its diesel generators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is particularly concerning as Eskom promised the country that its improved performance from April 2025 would reduce diesel expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It further aligns with former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter\u2019s claim that Eskom\u2019s performance did not significantly improve and that burning diesel is necessary to keep the lights on.<\/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 in May 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech tracked Eskom\u2019s OCGT use year-to-date from 2020 to 2025, which showed that it is at an all-time high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chart below, which uses Eskom\u2019s official data<\/strong>, shows the power generation through open-cycle gas turbines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom\u2019s latest operational data show that it is burning more diesel than ever before to keep the lights on, substantiating former Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":824598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[20304,1164,22588,1887],"class_list":["post-824595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-andre-de-ruyter","tag-eskom","tag-mpho-makwana","tag-mteto-nyati"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824595","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=824595"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824609,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824595\/revisions\/824609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}