Eskom retains its power over SA
Eskom's monopoly over SA's power industry has only slipped from 95% to 92% over the past two decades, Statistics SA's figures show
Efforts to break Eskom's monopoly of SA's electricity generation by allowing independent power producers to compete has made little headway, judging from Statistics SA's monthly power generation figures. Stats SA reported on Thursday that of the 20,844 gigawatt-hours generated in September, Eskom produced 91%.
The total amount of electricity generated was down 0.8% from September 2017. Eskom's record generation was 22,738 gigawatt-hours in July 2007, a level it never regained after sinking to 17,384 gigawatt-hours at the height of load-shedding in September 2009. Electricity generated by "nonEskom" independent power producers reached a record 2,093 gigawatt-hours in January. Stats SA's data shows that the sliver of the industry allowed to independent producers has only grown from 5% in January 2000 to 8.8% in September. laingr@businesslive.co.za..
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