Bad news as Eskom warns of high risk of load shedding at short notice

After more than 10 months of uninterrupted electricity supply, Eskom on Friday morning issued an alert indicating a high risk of load shedding at short notice.

“This is a potentially temporary setback. Load shedding is largely behind us due to the structural improvements in our generation fleet,” Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said.

“However, over the past seven days, we have experienced several breakdowns that require extended repair times,” she explained.

The announcement comes hours after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) approved a 12.7% electricity tariff hike for this year.

This is well below Eskom’s request of 36.1% for the 2025/26 financial year.

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Return of load shedding?

Eskom Group Chief Executive Dan Maroka said the breakdowns have led to the power utility using emergency reserves, which now need replenishment.

“Consequently, we are closely monitoring the status of our current emergency reserves, and load shedding up to Stage 4 may be implemented over the weekend,” said Maroka.

Minister of Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and Eskom are expected to provide an update on the country’s electricity generation performance on Friday.

Eskom board chairperson Mteto Nyati told the Portfolio Committee on Energy and Electricity in Parliament on Friday that the utility has faced challenges.

Eskom’s milestone

Eskom reached 300 days without implementing load shedding earlier this month — a milestone not seen since June 2018.

The parastatal has shown vast improvement since the implementation of the Energy Action Plan in July 2022, including the introduction of its own Generation Recovery Plan in March 2023.

Eskom said the improved performance also resulted in year-to-date diesel savings worth R16.42 billion (year-on-year), which is about 62.9% less than the R26.09 billion spent during the same period last year, as a result of the continued execution of the Generation Operational Recovery plan.

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