Pretoria - South Africans used 2.1 percent less electricity in July 2009 as compared to the same month in 2008, revealed Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday.
The estimated seasonally adjusted electricity consumption was 5.3 percent lower in the first seven months of 2009 compared with the first seven months of 2008.
In its report entitled "Electricity generated and available for distribution", Stats SA collated the 2009 figures and compared them to the 2008 trends.
Electricity consumption after seasonal adjustment for July 2009 increased by 2.1 percent compared with June 2009 and by 2.9 percent for the three months ended July 2009 compared with the three months ended April 2009.
According to the report, seasonally adjusted production of electricity for the three months ended July 2009 increased by 3.1 percent compared with the previous three months.
The actual production of electricity in July 2009, about 23 023 Gigawatt-hours, represents a decline of 2 percent compared with the July 2008 figure, the smallest annual decrease for 2009 thus far.
On electricity distributed to the provinces for the first seven months of 2009, the report indicated that it was 4.9 percent lower (-6 319 Gigawatt-hours) compared with the first seven months of 2008.
"Lower figures were reported for eight provinces during this period ranging from -11.4 percent for Mpumalanga to -1.8 percent for Northern Cape," revealed the report.
According to the report KwaZulu-Natal was the only province with an increase (1.6 percent) during this period.
With regards to international trade in electricity, the report revealed that it increased from 6 021 Gigawatt-hours in the first seven months of 2008 to 7 136 Gigawatt-hours in the first seven months of 2009, representing an increase of 18.5 percent (1 115 Gigawatt-hours).
The volume of electricity exported to neighbouring countries for the first seven months of 2009 decreased by 3.5 percent (-278 Gigawatt-hours) compared with the first seven months of 2008.
