Durban - South Africa’s electricity production has decreased by 4.3% on an annual basis in May 2022, according to a Statistics SA report published in July.
For the same period, South Africa’s electricity consumption decreased by 2.5%.
The survey is conducted monthly and is used as a tool to monitor the state of the economy and economic policies.
“Electricity generation (production) decreased by 4.3% year-on-year in May 2022. Seasonally adjusted electricity generation decreased by 0.6% in May 2022 compared with April 2022.
“Electricity distribution (consumption) decreased by 2.5% year-on-year in May 2022. Seasonally adjusted electricity distribution decreased by 0.5% month-on-month in May 2022, following month-on-month changes of -0.6% in April 2022 and 0.3% in March 2022,” the Stats SA report said.
According to the report, Eskom was responsible for producing more than 90% of the electricity generated from January to May 2022.
The Stats SA report comes off the back of yet another major strike at Eskom that involved some of its employees and worker unions.
The unions, employees and Eskom were locked in negotiations over wage increases, which resulted in the country entering stage 6 load shedding.
Furthermore, Eskom was granted a court interdict to stop the illegal strike that was taking place at about nine of its power stations.
Eskom’s Jan Oberholzer also revealed that some employees were intimidated by those who did not want Eskom employees to report to work.
It was later announced that Eskom had reached an agreement to settle the wage dispute, with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) saying they had come to an agreement as well.
But it seems the ailing power utility is never out of the spotlight, as one of its top employees announced his resignation from the company after decades of service.
Eskom’s chief nuclear officer, Riedewaan Barkadien, will be leaving the company to join a Canadian nuclear utility in an executive position.
It was announced that Keith Featherstone, another long-standing employee in the nuclear department, would step in to assume Barkadien’s position until it is permanently filled.
IOL