Resolving load shedding within a touching distance - Ramokgopa

Banele Ginidza

Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientso Ramokgopa has announced positive developments regarding South Africa's power supply, revealing that the national electricity grid has reached a commendable state of stability in recent weeks.

With the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) exceeding 61% over the past fortnight, and unplanned outages significantly reduced to approximately 10 000 megawatts (MW)—down from 13 500 MW during the same period last year—the national utility, Eskom, is generating more electricity than needed.

This prominent achievement has led to a substantial decrease in expenditures on diesel, with R5 billion spent on diesel compared to R13.5bn for the same period in 2023.

"We are within touching distance of resolving load shedding, I will come back and share with the rest of the country very soon about that," Ramokgopa said on Wednesday.

He attributed the turnaround to fixing Thuthuka, Dhuva, Majuba, Kendal, Arnot and Kriel, which contributed 70% to load shedding, and especially protecting Lethabo, Matimba and Medupi, which were classed as flagship stations.

Ramokgopa said significant milestones included Koeberg Unit 1 returning to service, Kusile units coming back online, and Medupi Unit 4 synchronising in July 2025, all of which aim to reinforce security of supply as the grid moves through a transition period.

There has been no load shedding since 15 May 2025, with only 26 hours recorded between 1 April and 31 July 2025. Between 1 April and 7 August 2025, the Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) fell to 28.35%, a week-on-week improvement of about 0.23%.

"How we got here, coming from lows of EAF at 49% performance, the average for the past week 65.85%, there are stages were we reached 70%. It's not a stroke of luck. We made sure to set up enabling structures to support the recovery," Ramokgopa said.

He said the next stage was to stabilise the grid at 65% EAF, which included sustaining the performance of Koeberg Unit 1 and - with Kusile out of intensive care and ramping up to commercial operation - focus would be on correcting outage slips.

"We must correct outage slips. When you take the machine out for a duration of say a month, it must return it by expectation, parts must and skills must be available. We are not keeping to that promise and we must address that because our objective is to be at 70% EAF and above," Ramokgopa said.

He said Medupi Unit 4, recently fitted with a new generator, was not yet on commercial operation but that, together with the synchronisation of Kusile Unit 6 would add to the grid stability.

Ramokgopa said the peakers or Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) reached about 5.9% this week, which was better than the same period last year.

"In the same period we have spent R5.8bn compared to R13bn in 2023 in the same period. The budget for the financial year is about R12bn or so, we used R5bn of that," he said.

"At the beginning of the year we had spent over 40% of the annual allocation. It's because winter demand intensity reaches peak to absorb failures in the fleet. In the same period in 2023, R14.8 bn of diesel had been used." 

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