South Africans can look forward to a load shedding-free summer season with Eskom announcing that it does not forecast the implementation of the rolling power cuts from this month to the end of March next year.
This after the power utility supplied electricity to South Africans for 97% of the winter period with only 26 hours of load shedding recorded over four evenings during that period.
Delayed unit returns
“Eskom’s Summer Outlook for 1 September 2025 to 31 March 2026, forecasts no load shedding – a recovery from last summer’s 13 days of load shedding, when electricity was supplied 96% of the time due to delayed unit returns from planned maintenance.
“This summer represents an even greater improvement compared with the 176 days of load shedding during the 2023/24 summer, when electricity was available only 17% of the time,” the power utility said in a statement on Friday.
Compared to last summer, approximately 4000MW (Megawatt) of extra capacity has been added to meet demand.
Eskom Chief Group Executive, Dan Marokane, praised staff at the power utility for their efforts to ensure that the lights are kept on.
“This positive projected load shedding-free Summer Outlook is the result of the progress achieved through the expertise and dedication of the Eskom Guardians over the past three years and the associated support from the government-led initiatives.
“It shows that our strategy is delivering on our commitment to energy security, supporting the country’s socio-economic programmes, and positioning Eskom as an investable, sustainable company ready to compete in the marketplace.
“The structural shift in the performance of the generation fleet has, at the same time, delivered cost efficiencies, with savings in diesel spend of approximately R16 billion in the last financial year alone. We are currently increasing our focus and capacity to drive further efficiencies across Eskom,” Marokane said.
‘Bullish’
Speaking during a media briefing at Megawatt Park on Friday, Energy and Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said: “We are no longer within touching distance … we are touching it, the end of load shedding. We are close to that.
“We are very bullish about the outlook. This comes from the fact that these [Eskom] men and women have done a remarkable job of turning this organisation around,” he said.
He added that although the light at the end of the tunnel shines brightly, there are “other fronts” that are appearing including load reduction.
“There are households that are experiencing load reduction. We have just finalised and are polishing our strategy on ending load reduction. We know that from an Eskom side, it accounts for 549MW. If you put that into context, is that we are generating far more than what the demand.
“I am making that point to drive home the point that load reduction is not load shedding in another guise. It is a downstream isolated infrastructure challenge as a result of non-technical losses and the overload on the network.
“We are finalising that. I’ll be announcing that to the country in the next two weeks on how we are ending load reduction,” Ramokgopa said.
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