Electricity consumption fell in October, Statistics SA said on Thursday.
Consumption dropped 1,2% (-239 gigawatt-hours) in October from the same month a year earlier, the Pretoria-based agency said.
Total production of electricity dropped 3,5% for October 2009 when compared with October 2008.
Statistics SA said electricity distributed by Eskom to the provinces for the first 10 months of 2009 was 3,8% lower compared with the first 10 months of 2008.
Lower figures were reported for eight provinces during this period, ranging from -8,9% for Mpumalanga to -2,2% for Gauteng.
KwaZulu-Natal was the only province with an increase (1,5%) during this period.
Statistics SA said the volume of electricity purchased from outside South Africa’s borders increased from 8786 gigawatt-hours in the first 10 months of 2008 to 10 243 gigawatt-hours in the first 10 months of 2009, representing an increase of 16,6%.
The volume of electricity sold to neighbouring countries during this period decreased by 1,3% compared with the first 10 months of 2008. — Sapa