The year 2021 was the most 'intensive' year of load shedding, with South Africans experiencing power outages 13% of the time, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. | Fin24
South Africans experienced load shedding 13% of the time during 2021.The performance of Eskom's fleet has been on a declining trend, analysis by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research shows.
South Africans suffered through the most"intensive" year of load shedding during 2021, having experienced the power outages 13% of the time, analysis by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research shows. The CSIR on Tuesday released the statistics of utility-scale power generation in South Africa in 2021.Load shedding was 40% more intensive than in 2020.Overall there were 1 169 hours of load shedding in 2021, mostly at Stage 2 - when 2 000MW of electricity is taken off the grid. Load shedding was most concentrated in October and November.
Coal is still the dominant source of electricity, accounting for 81.4% of the 227 terawatt-hours fed to the system, followed by renewable energy sources – solar and wind – accounting for 6.7%. Including hydropower, renewables accounted for 11.9% of the energy mix. Nuclear power contributed 5.4%, and diesel contributed 1.4%.The CSIR noted that all generation technologies – coal, nuclear, diesel, and renewables - generated more electricity than the previous year.