Ramokgopa defends Eskom's R5 billion diesel spend to prevent load shedding
Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has defended Eskom's heavy use of diesel this winter, saying it was necessary to avoid load shedding during peak demand.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday morning, Ramokgopa gave an update on the state of the electricity grid and admitted that Eskom faced significant challenges at the start of the financial year.
"It's not a secret that we experienced significant challenges at the beginning of the financial year in April, and we relied more and more on diesel to be able to support us," Ramokgopa said.
Ramokgopa explained that diesel use is part of Eskom's emergency response plan for periods of high risk, especially in winter.
"This diesel was able to support us because it is meant to support us during those periods of difficulty. Of course, the budget for the diesel is about R12 billion or so.
"We have spent about R5 billion of that, and the next question you might ask is why, at the beginning of the financial year, you have spent over 40% of your annual allocation".
He further added that the increased diesel use is a strategic response to the heightened risk during winter months, when electricity demand peaks and the ageing power infrastructure is more vulnerable to breakdowns.
"It's because it's during winter when the intensity of the demand reaches its peak, and then when we're likely to experience challenges if some units fail because we don't have the headroom to be able to absorb those failures of the units."
"So what do we do? We then call on our ace card, which is the pickers to come and help us. Just to give you context for the period of 1 April to 31 August in 2023, just that period, we used about R14.8 billion
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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.
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