The estimated consumption of electricity in July 2008 decreased by 0.7 percent compared with July 2007, Statistics SA said on Thursday.

The estimated volume of electricity (available for distribution) for the three months ending July 2008 decreased by 1.8 percent compared with the three months ending July 2007.

Electricity consumption after seasonal adjustment for the latest three months ending July 2008 decreased by 0.9 percent compared with the previous three months ended April 2008.

Production of electricity also decreased, and — after seasonal adjustment — showed a drop of 0.9 percent for the three months ending July 2008 compared with the preceding three months.

The estimated total production of electricity in July 2008 decreased by 1.3 percent compared with July 2007.

The estimated production of electricity during the latest three months ending July 2008 decreased by 2.2 percent compared with the same period of 2007.

Distribution of electricity by Eskom to the provinces decreased, Stats SA said.

Electricity distributed to the provinces went down by 1.8 percent for the first seven months of 2008 compared with the first seven months of 2007.

In spite of the general decreasing trend, increases were however reported for Limpopo (1.6 percent) and Mpumalanga (1.5 percent).

Decreases were reported for Western Cape (-0.2 percent), Gauteng (-1.4 percent), North West (-1.7 percent), KwaZulu-Natal (-4.5 percent), Free State (-4.6 percent), Eastern Cape (-5.0 percent) and Northern Cape (-8.6 percent).

According to Statistics SA, international trade in electricity for the first seven months of 2008 showed annual decreases for electricity imported from outside South Africa (-11.7 percent) and electricity exported to neighbouring countries (-3.3 percent).

"The decrease in imports of electricity in the first five months of 2008 resulted from reduced availability from the Cahorra Bassa scheme owing to the planned refurbishment of an Eskom converter station and the unavailability of the transmission network in Zambia owing to system instability in that country," Statistics SA added.

In July 2008 there was a 10.7 percent increase over July 2007 as imports returned to levels above 1000 Gigawatt-hours for the second time in 2008.

Sapa