(Photo: Maroela Media)
At midnight on March 12, South Africa had a total of 300 consecutive load-shedding-free days.
On Friday, the power supplier described this as a significant milestone that emphasizes the ongoing restoration and strengthening of Eskom’s generation capacity.
The performance is a reflection of the upward rate in plants’ delivery, supported by an energy availability factors that are continuously maintained above 60% and currently stand at 65.85% for the financial year so far.
According to the power supplier, this also indicates the continued progress with its turnaround plan.
A 53% drop in unplanned maintenance work was reported.
For the financial year so far (1 April 2025 to 12 March 2026), spending on diesel was R8.58 billion less than during the same period last year, an annual decrease of 57.35%. Expenditure on diesel on an annual basis is expected to remain below the budget.
“South Africa now has 301 consecutive days without a power outage (due to load shedding) behind it, with only 26 hours of load shedding introduced in this financial year in April and May last year,” says Eskom.
Load reduction
Although the power grid is stable and generation capacity is more than the demand for power, the problem with illegal connections and tampering with meters continues. This leads to damage to infrastructure and poses major security risks.
In response to this, Eskom continues to introduce load reduction as a temporary measure in high-risk areas to protect communities and the power grid.
To deal with the problems sustainably, Eskom launched a phased program to eliminate load shedding by next year. The program targets 971 suppliers and will benefit approximately 1.6 million customers out of Eskom’s overall customer base of 7.2 million nationwide.
Key interventions include installing smart meters, integrating resources and extending free power to eligible customers.