The estimated consumption of electricity in South Africa was reported at -1.7% year-on-year (y/y) in September from -1.6% y/y in August, data released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday showed.
The physical volume of electricity production was reported at -0.4% y/y in September from -1.3 y/y in August.
Electricity consumption after seasonal adjustment for the three months ended September 2009 increased by an unchanged 2.6% compared with the preceding three months.
The estimated production of electricity for the three months ended September 2009 after seasonal adjustment increased by 3.1% compared with the previous three months and from 2.7% in August.
The data showed that electricity distributed to the provinces for the first nine months of 2009 was 4.1% lower (-6,870 Gigawatt-hours) compared with the first nine months of 2008.
Lower figures were reported for eight provinces during this period, ranging from -9.5% for Mpumalanga to -2.4% for Gauteng.
KwaZulu-Natal was the only province with an increase (1.5%) during this period.
The volume of electricity imported from outside South African borders increased from 8,141 Gigawatt-hours in the first nine months of 2008 to 9,128 Gigawatt-hours in the first nine months of 2009, representing an increase of 12,1% (987 Gigawatt-hours).
The volume of electricity exported to neighbouring countries during this period decreased by 1.7% (-181 Gigawatt-hours) compared with the first nine months of 2008.
