Online Reporter
The cost of power cuts to South Africa’s economy plunged 83% last year as supply stabilised, a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research report showed.
The economy forfeited R481 billion ($26.7 billion) in output due to the outages, known locally as load shedding, down from as much as R2.9 trillion in 2024 when there were record blackouts, according to the report released Monday. Gross domestic product totaled R4.7 trillion last year, 0.6 percent more than in 2023, according to the state statistics agency.
The improvement came after state utility Eskom increased maintenance and took other measures to improve the reliability of its coal-fired plants that generate the bulk of the nation’s electricity supply.
Still, a streak of uninterrupted electricity has ended, with Eskom implementing intermittent outages this year.
Auxiliary diesel turbines — designed to supply power during peak demand — are also being utilised more, the utility’s data shows.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa this month warned that the system remained vulnerable because the procurement of more generation capacity has faced repeated delays.
The nation’s sole nuclear power station, once regarded as Eskom’s most-reliable plant, has been among the units that have broken down.
Eskom said it is working to continue improving its fleet performance, which had an average 60 percent energy availability factor last year — the highest since 2021. Demand fell 3 percent in 2024, helping the utility maintain supply, and “continues to trend down,” it said. — Moneyweb
Bongani Ndlovu