South Africa marks a full yr with out load shedding

South Africa has reached a milestone that might have appeared unthinkable simply three years in the past: a full 12 consecutive months with out a single bout of load shedding. The final time Eskom imposed rolling energy cuts was in mid-Might 2025, capping what has turn out to be the longest sustained interval of grid stability in nicely over a decade.

The achievement marks a exceptional turnaround for the embattled state-owned energy utility, which in 2023 imposed greater than 300 days of load shedding and steadily resorted to stage-6 cuts that shaved billions of rand off financial output and crippled small companies. By final yr, the rolling energy cuts had turn out to be sporadic; this yr, they’ve been absent fully.

Eskom attributes the restoration to its technology restoration plan, launched in April 2023, which prioritised intensive deliberate upkeep, a clampdown on unplanned breakdowns and a return to unique tools producers for repairs at drawback stations.

The plan has delivered an extra 4.4GW of accessible capability in contrast with the identical interval final yr, whereas the power availability issue – Eskom’s headline reliability metric – has climbed steadily out of the 50-60% vary that after outlined its wrestle.

The total commissioning of Kusile, the 4.8GW coal-fired station whose persistent unit failures contributed a lot to previous distress, has been a key driver. So, too, has the gradual ramp-down of the diesel-burning open-cycle gasoline generators that beforehand saved the lights on at big price to the fiscus.

Personal technology has additionally performed a significant function. Tax incentives launched in 2023 helped set off a rooftop photo voltaic increase that has seen tens of hundreds of South African households and companies set up behind-the-meter PV capability, taking materials load off the grid throughout daytime.

Licensing threshold

The lifting of the 100MW licensing threshold for personal technology initiatives in 2022, adopted by its full removing, has additionally unlocked a wave of company wheeling agreements and personal funding that now contributes to total system stability alongside Eskom’s personal restoration.

The restoration has additionally had political backing. Electrical energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2023 to coordinate the response to the power disaster, has labored intently with the Nationwide Vitality Disaster Committee and Eskom on the turnaround. The federal government of nationwide unity fashioned after the 2024 elections has continued the reform agenda, together with the structural unbundling of Eskom that delivered a separate Nationwide Transmission Firm in 2024.

Learn: Eskom battles widespread outages as storm batters the Cape

However the restoration has come at a price to customers. Successive Nersa-approved tariff will increase have lifted family and enterprise electrical energy payments nicely above inflation since 2023, and Eskom is in search of additional hikes to fund its grid funding programme.

Different considerations additionally persist. Eskom’s personal medium-term system adequacy outlook, revealed in October final yr, warned that rolling blackouts could return in the direction of the top of the last decade. The report flags the deliberate retirement of 5.3GW of coal capability as the first driver of a possible provide hole in 2029 and 2030.  – © 2026 NewsCentral Media