Power consumption down

Johannesburg - The estimated consumption of electricity in June 2008 decreased by 2.3% (-490 Gigawatt-hours) compared with June 2007, Statistics SA said on Thursday.

Electricity consumed for the three months ending June 2008 decreased by 1.4% (-839 Gigawatt-hours) compared with the same three months a year ago.

"In the first six months of 2008, consumption of electricity was affected by numerous factors that led to reduced levels of consumption, such as load shedding and a continuous drive from Eskom in encouraging users to save on electricity consumption," Stats SA said.

Electricity consumption after seasonal adjustment for the latest three months ending June 2008 decreased by 0.2% compared with the previous three months ended March 2008.

Stats SA added that the estimated production of electricity, after seasonal adjustment, showed a decrease of 1.3% for the three months ending June 2008 compared with the preceding three months.

The estimated total production of electricity in June 2008 decreased by 3.3% (-755 Gigawatt-hours) compared with June 2007.

The estimated production of electricity during the latest three months ending June 2008 decreased by 1.5% (-1 013 Gigawatt-hours) compared with the same period of 2007. Stats SA said that electricity distributed to the provinces decreased by 2.0% for the first six months of 2008 compared with the first six months of 2007.

Increases for the first six months of 2008 compared to the first six months of 2007 were reported for Mpumalanga (1.1% or 189 Gigawatt-hours) and Limpopo (0.5% or 27 Gigawatt-hours).

Decreases were reported for Western Cape (-0.7% or -83 Gigawatt-hours), Gauteng (-1.3% or -404 Gigawatt-hours), North West (-1.8% or -232 Gigawatt-hours), KwaZulu-Natal (-4.2% or -901 Gigawatt-hours), Free State (-4.5% or -215 Gigawatt-hours), Eastern Cape (-6.7% or -332 Gigawatt-hours) and Northern Cape (-8.9% or -223 Gigawatt-hours).

International trade in electricity for the first half of 2008 showed annual decreases for electricity imported from outside South Africa (-15.5% or -905 Gigawatt-hours) and electricity exported to neighbouring countries (-3.2% or -225 Gigawatt-hours).

"The decrease in imports of electricity in the first five months of 2008 resulted from reduced availability from the Cahorra Bassa scheme owing to the planned refurbishment of an Eskom converter station and the unavailability of the transmission network in Zambia owing to system instability in that country," Stats SA said.

In June 2008 there was a 13.9% increase over June 2007 as imports returned to levels above 1000 Gigawatt-hours for the first time since October 2007.

- SAPA