BuaNews (Tshwane)
Bathandwa Mbola
6 January 2009
Pretoria — South Africans used 5.7 percent less electricity in November 2008 as compared to the same month last year. The latest figures released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Tuesday indicate that the consumption of electricity in November 2008 decreased by 5.7 percent compared to November 2007.
According to Stats SA, the estimated electricity consumed for the three months ending November 2008 also decreased by 2.3 percent (- 1389 Gigawatt-hours) when compared with the same three months of 2007.
This year, electricity consumption after seasonal adjustment for the three months ending November 2008 increased by 1.5 percent compared with the previous three months ending August 2008, according to Stats SA.
In its report entitled "Electricity generated and available for distribution", Stats SA collated the 2008 figures and compared them to the 2007 trends.
On electricity distributed to the provinces, the report indicated a decrease of 2.0 percent (-4 152 Gigawatt-hours) for the first eleven months of 2008 compared with the first eleven months of 2007.
In spite of the general decreasing trend, Stats SA said increases were reported for Limpopo with 2.3 percent and Mpumalanga with 0.9 percent.
However, decreases were reported for Western Cape, Gauteng, Eastern Cape, North West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Cape.
With regards to international trade in electricity, for the first eleven months of 2008, data showed annual decreases for electricity imported from outside South Africa of about -11.5 percent and electricity exported to neighbouring countries by -2.2 percent.
"Electricity purchased outside South Africa (imports) in November 2008 was considerably below normal due to under-performance of the HCB-Apollo system from Northern Mozambique," the report stated.
It further added that Eskom experienced equipment failure at the Apollo converter station that limited the ability to import.
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