Johannesburg – South Africa’s power system remains stable, with Eskom reporting a sustained decline in unplanned outages and sufficient emergency reserves to meet winter demand.
The Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) has improved to 27.99% for the financial year-to-date, down from 29.15% over the same period last year, the power utility said on Friday.
Eskom also noted that planned maintenance has increased to 14.76% of total capacity—up 3.32% year-on-year—contributing to a slight dip in the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) to 56.77%.
Unplanned outages averaged 13,089MW since 1 April but have since dropped to 11,670MW. The utility is on track to return 2,970MW to the grid by 12 May, bolstering generation capacity ahead of peak winter periods.
Power system remains stable with a sustained reduction in unplanned outages pic.twitter.com/lptrRODgKF
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) May 9, 2025
Eskom’s Winter Outlook, released on 5 May, projects no loadshedding if unplanned outages remain below 13,000MW. Even under a worst-case scenario of 15,000MW in outages, loadshedding would be limited to 21 days at Stage 2—an improvement from last year’s forecast of Stage 5.
Meanwhile, reliance on diesel-powered Open-Cycle Gas Turbines is decreasing, with R2.43 billion spent on fuel since April—up from last year but expected to taper as more units return to service.
Eskom urged the public to avoid illegal connections, which risk transformer failures, and to report infrastructure crimes. An update is scheduled for 16 May 2025
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Picture: X/@Eskom_SA
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
