Grid recovery brings hope for load shedding-free summer
South Africa's state of power grid shows real momentum after years of disruption, with unplanned outages shrinking, reliability rising, and a clear path toward a stable summer.
During a media briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday, Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa framed the August briefing as evidence that disciplined maintenance, unit returns, and strategic upgrades finally translate into tangible, near-term resilience for households and businesses.
The briefing, which draws on the Department of Electricity and Energy's August 2025 State of Electricity briefing, outlined a landscape in which unplanned outages are trending down and the grid shows signs of strengthened resilience ahead of the coming summer.
Ramokgopa opened by acknowledging the progress while tempering expectations.
'What we're seeing is a recovery trajectory delivering real results - lower unplanned losses, higher reliability metrics, and a clearer path to secure generation capacity for the 2025/26 summer,' the minister said.
'We are not claiming victory, but we are confident that the combination of disciplined maintenance, returning units to service, and strategic upgrades will continue to strengthen the grid's resilience.'
Key numbers presented in the briefing portray a sector moving away from the worst days of load shedding toward a more stable operating envelope.
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%.
The ministry cautioned that the system remains sensitive to external pressures and the realities of operating a large, aging fleet - still, the data point to meaningful gains.
Ramokgopa stated that the year-to-date Energy Availability Factor (EAF) stood at 60.14% by 8 August 2025 , up roughly 4.4 percentage points from April 2025.
The weekly EAF oscillated between 62% and 70%, with a month-to-date average of 65.38%, signalling growing fleet stability and reliability.
On the fuel side, he stated that the Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) performance showed a notable uptick in activity. The OCGT load factor reached 5.99% for the week, up from 0.31% the prior week.
He stated that from 1 April to 7 August 2025 (the winter period), Eskom spent about R5.842 billion on fuel for its OCGT plants, generating 988.56 GWh.
'The year-to-date OCGT load factor stood at 9.35%, a slight week-on-week decrease but still higher than the 4.82% recorded during the same period last year.'
The briefing highlighted a broad set of initiatives under the Operational Reliability and Sustainability Plan, designed to push long-term reliability and safety.
These efforts include reducing the number of trips, improving outage planning and execution, and accelerating the implementation of strategic projects.
The plan also emphasised a strengthened people-plant-process mindset, with root-cause analysis, trip reduction directives, and expanded partnerships with original equipment manufacturers and other utilities to improve availability of spares, technology, and maintenance capability.
Beyond maintenance, the minister emphasised capacity additions and returns from units brought back from long-term outages.
Since late 2023, several key units have returned online or been upgraded, contributing to approximately 2,500 MW of added capacity.
Ramokgopa added that notable milestones include 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.
The minister said that the improvements are about short-term numbers and longer-term stability.
'The focus on Koeberg, Medupi, Kusile, Tutuka, and other critical stations is about more than today's metrics. It's about maintaining a stable, predictable power system that supports households, industry, and the broader economy,' Ramokgopa said.
[email protected]
IOL Politics
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
eNCA
6 hours ago
- eNCA
Eskom confident it will keep the lights on
JOHANNESBURG - No surprise power cuts expected for the rest of winter. This according to Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who provided an update on the state of the grid. He says the energy availability factor is improving, averaging between 62% and 70%. The country has experienced no rolling blackouts since May 2025 proving Eskom's ability to meet the demand for power supply during the winter period. But to do this, the power utility found itself having to burn more diesel and that saw them spend R5-billion in the last four months.
IOL News
10 hours ago
- IOL News
Ramakgopa urges Eskom to withdraw court challenge on electricity trading licences
Minister for Electricity and Energy, Kgosientso Ramakgopa and Eskom CEO Dan Marokane during the media briefing on the State of the National Grid on Wednesday. Image: GCIS Banele Ginidza Minister for Electricity and Energy, Kgosientso Ramakgopa, has urged Eskom to withdraw its ongoing court challenge against the Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) regarding the awarding of electricity trading licences to private companies. This appeal comes as Ramokgopa emphasised the need for a regulatory environment that fosters competition rather than legal disputes. Ramakgopa's remarks highlight a growing divide amongst business stakeholders. While some, such as Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), have been vocal critics of Eskom's decision to litigate, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has sided with the utility. In response to the pushback, Ramakgopa advised Eskom, "not to burden the judges to come into this domain," underscoring his belief that court intervention would complicate an already intricate sector. "Nersa then initiated the process of reviewing and coming up with the rules. The initial timeline was that they will do that within 12 months. I asked Nersa that the pressure is such that we need to conclude those rules as soon as possible," Ramokgopa said during a media briefing on Wednesday. "And Nersa has agreed that we'll truncate that to three months without compromising the quality of the impact and what the rules will look like. And in that context, I said to Eskom it's not advisable that you go to the courts. And with the highest respect we have with the judiciary, don't invite the judiciary into a space that is really technical, if you like." Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ However, Ramokgopa acknowledged that introducing competition in this nascent market could be precarious. He explained that the market's current conditions might lead to a dilemma where private entities, driven primarily by profit motives, tend to serve only the higher ends of the market, thus neglecting poorer consumers and potentially decimating local municipalities as they lose their customer base. "Because this is a nascent space we are starting, none of us have been in this space before. There's naturally going to be friction, interpretation, misinterpretation of what this reform means," he said. "There's going to be conversations and, in some instances, disagreement on the pace of these reforms. The issue whether the regulator is capacitated enough to be able to manage and oversee these reforms. "Is this monopoly that is Eskom ready to relinquish that monopoly and accept that they are new players? And what the Eskom team had raised was that we are not opposed to the reforms, but what we want is clarity with regards to the rules." Ramakgopa said what the SA Local Government Association was saying was that what this dispensation does was that munnicipalities were going to lose their best customers who underpin and guarantee them the revenue stream, and they will be left with those that can't afford. "So that's the argument," he said, adding that whether Eskom and its board took that decision was outside of the entity's scope. "I've raised it with the chair. Don't enter the court process. Let's not muddy the space. We have agreed, next time doing that, the shareholder will also oversee the process," Ramokgopa said. "It's a particularly unhelpful approach to muddy the waters. Allow the space and for us as the players, there's friction. And in that period, the expectation is that let's clear the rules. And then once we have cleared the rules, then proceed with the issuing of the license. "I have raised that to the chair and its something that they will go back and ensure that we are able to address it. I have no answer now whether they have initiated it or not, the conversation took place yesterday." BUSINESS REPORT
IOL News
11 hours ago
- IOL News
Resolving load shedding within a touching distance
Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa providing a State of the electricity grid in a media briefing on Wednesday. Image: GCIS 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.
