South Africa has gone 300 days without load shedding.
Image: File Picture
Eskom announced it has reached a milestone: It has kept load shedding at bay for 300 days.
This milestone was last reached in June 2018.
The power utility said this milestone is the outcome of its Generation Recovery Plan since March 2023, which has delivered sustained and ongoing structural improvement in the generation fleet.
Group Executive for Generation, Bheki Nxumalo said all credit goes to the 40,000 dedicated Eskom employees committed to serving South Africa.
“Our sights are now firmly focussed on delivering one year without loadshedding at midnight on March 26, 2025. These 300 days without load shedding have been characterised by a significant reduction in unplanned outages, which have long been one of the biggest challenges, a notable improvement in the energy availability factor of approximately 7%, and savings in diesel expenditure of R16.42 billion,” Nxumalo said.
Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane said this action plan has boosted the power utility’s performance recovery.
“This concrete and ongoing delivery of the action plan has boosted business confidence with credit rating agencies and banks stating Eskom’s performance recovery is a key contributor towards positive sentiments as far as South Africa’s GDP growth prospects of up to 2% are concerned,” Marokane said.
He said public sentiment is shifting, and business leaders who once had to invest precious capex in self-generation have enquired whether they should revert to investing in Eskom for their power needs.
“The savings we are making in diesel spend are invested in the business to drive efficiencies further and place Eskom on a path to profitability and long-term operational and financial sustainability,” Marokane said.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
IOL
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