By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom forecasts no load-shedding, and showed a significant improvement over last year’s period of blackout.
Eskom presented its Summer Outlook for 1 September 2025 to 31 March 2026.
This outlook showed the significant strides Eskom has made over the past year, as the utility forecast no load-shedding for summer 2025/26, a notable recovery from the summer of 2024/25’s 13 days of blackouts.
In winter 2025, Eskom has to implement only 26 hours of load-shedding across four evenings, successfully supplying electricity 97% of the time to support South Africa’s economy.
This summer represents an even greater improvement compared with the 176 days of loadshedding during the 2023/24 summer, when electricity was available only 17% of the time.
The utility said this performance reflects the progress of Eskom’s Generation Recovery Plan and deliberate intensified maintenance resulting in continued improvements in plant performance.
“Compared with the commencement of last summer of 2024/25, supply and demand interventions at this comparative time have added ~4,000MW of extra capacity to meet expected demand this summer, “Eskom said.
The ongoing recovery and structural improvements in Eskom’s generation fleet were owing to the focused implementation of its Generation Recovery Plan by its workforce, said Eskom officials and Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
Additionally, following the completion of major planned outages during 2024 and early this year, the peak planned maintenance this summer was about 1 900 MW lower than during the summer that started in September 2024.
The Generation Recovery Plan has seen a total of 7 800 MW of capacity restored, since 2023, through the completion of long-term outages and new builds. This includes 1 400 MW that has been restored from the addition of Medupi Unit 4 and Kusile Unit 6 this year.
An additional 930 MW of capacity is expected from Koeberg Unit 1 when it returns to service following long-term operation maintenance this month, noted Eskom Group CE Dan Marokane.
Eskom energy availability factor (EAF) had increased to an average of 60.6% in its 2025 financial year. The year-to-date EAF was at 61.1%, which reflects a 6.1% improvement over the past two years.
Additionally, Eskom also reduced diesel generator expenditure to R17-billion in the financial year ended March 31, 2025, down from R33-billion spent in its financial year ending March 31, 2024.
By the end of August unplanned outages dropped to 10 100 MW, with a low of 6 900 MW recorded on August 23 and 24, which is the lowest levels since September 2020.
The EAF reached 66% in August, up 10% since April, with 38 units at more than 80%, and an average monthly increase of 2.6%, alongside increased planned maintenance.
Additionally, diesel use has steadily declined, falling to 1.84% load factor in August from around 16.02% load factor in April.
“The structural shift in the performance of the generation fleet has delivered cost efficiencies, with savings in diesel spend of approximately R16-billion in the last financial year alone.
“We aim to boost our capacity to drive further efficiencies across Eskom through primary energy optimisation, procurement efficiencies, digital transformation and capital productivity, together with revenue growth opportunities,” said Marokane.
In addition, by March 2026, Eskom aims to reduce load reduction by up to 20% and eliminate it within two years.
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Video Courtesy of Eskom.