Housing in Southern Africa May 2016

News

Eskom on solid ground

T he state energy supplier has decreased the usage of diesel from R800 million to R40 mil- lion in five months due to improved performance of its base-load fleet. The utility will continue with its rig- orous planned maintenance without implementing load shedding while also minimising usage of the OCGTs. With regards to the Generation Sustainability Strategy, the utility aims to achieve 80%plant availability, 10% planned maintenance and 10% unplannedmaintenance over theme- dium term. The adherence to regular scheduled maintenance is managed through the Tetris planning tool, which schedules outages based on forecasted demand andmaintenance requirements. According to Eskom, a key aspect of this includes having a strict winter and summer maintenance budget that comprises 8.5 GW for winter and 11.5 GW for summer. Whileworking on

Eskom’s board of directors’ said that the reduction in unplanned outages contributed to improvements of plant availability, and the sharp reduction in the usage of open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs).

the performance of the existing ageing fleet, Eskom has also fast tracked the building of new generating capacity. In March, Unit 3 of the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme was syn- chronised to the national power grid, marking a key milestone towards the full commercial operation of the unit, ahead of the scheduled deadline of January 2017. Unit 3 is the first of four units at the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme to be connected to the national grid. Once completed, all four units of Ingula will produce a total of 1 332 MW and this will go a long way to meeting the country’s rising electricity demand. The capacity expansion pro- gramme will be completed within the next five years and will increase

Eskom’s generation capacity by 17 384 MW; transmission lines by 9 756 km; and substation capacity by 42 470 MVA. This will enable Eskom to provide security of electricity supply to South African homes and busi- nesses, poweringeconomic expansion and extending electricity to millions of residential households, who cur- rently rely on other energy sources for domestic usage.

Eskomhas successfully completed 5 620 self-funded electrification con- nections as well as 1 080 farmconnec- tions during the course of the 2014/15 financial year. In addition, together with Department of Energy, Eskom has connected more than 4,6 mil- lion households to the national grid since 1991. ■ Home improvements growth in US H ome improvement spending is expected to increase by 8,6% by the end of 2016 and reach US$325 billion nationally by early 2017.”

“Our recalibrated indicator fore- casts a broader segment of the nation- al residential remodellingmarket that includes home improvements and maintenance activity for the owner- occupier housing market,” says Abbe Will, a research analyst in the Remod- elling Futures Program at the Joint Centre. “With this re-benchmarking, the Leading Indicator of Remodelling Activity, now more accurately sizes the remodellingmarket and continues to anticipate major turning points in home owners spending.” ■

then accelerate to 9,7% by the first quarter of next year. According to the Remodelling Futures Program at the Joint Centre for Housing Studies of Harvard University, “Ongoing gains in home prices and sales are encour- aging as more homeowners pursue larger-scale improvement projects this year,” says Chris Herbert, Manag- ing Director of the Joint Centre. “On the strength of these gains, the level of annual spending for remodel- ling and renovations is expected to

May 2016