Was Stage 6 load shedding revenge for tarrif decision? Eskom CEO responds

Eskom CEO Dan Marokane has dismissed claims that the utility implemented stage 6 load shedding because it failed to get the requested electricity tariff hike from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).

In August, the parastatal submitted an application to Nersa for a proposed 36.15% hike during its 2026 financial year, 11.81% in 2027 and 9.10% in 2028.

However, in January, Nersa only approved a 12.7% electricity tariff increase for Eskom.

Stage 6 load shedding

Marokane told 702 that stage 6 load shedding has nothing to do with the parastatal’s failure to receive its desired electricity tariff hike.

“This has got nothing to do with the tariff hike. It is consistent with our messaging before that if we get to a space where unplanned resources exceed the particular threshold, we have to protect the grid.

“We have said it repeatedly, we are not out of the woods yet. We need to achieve both the level of maintenance and reliability that we envisage together with more capacity.

“One of the things that we also spoke about early this year when we did our engagement with the public is that, much as you’ve seen progress in the energy availability factor, year-on-year we are getting concerned with the level of unreliability as evidenced by the number of trips in the system,” Marokane said.

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End of load shedding

Load shedding should be suspended by the weekend, he said.

“We’ve made tremendous progress since Saturday night. By yesterday, we had brought eight of the 10 units back. Now, we are building up stock on the fuel for the Open Cycle Gas Turbines. We have some more units coming back in the course of today.

“Our prognosis is that by the end of the week, we should be out of this. We are, of course, meeting, following and tracking every eight hours or so and we will keep the public informed,” Marokane said.

Marokane said Eskom apologises for the mishap. ”As indicated, it is part of the vulnerability our system still carries. We shouldn’t forget that we actually had a very good run of 311 days. It was not by accident, it was because the combination of the maintenance really brought us to this point.”

Eskom has reduced load shedding to stage 4 until further notice due to the recovery of units at three power stations.

This is after the parastatal ramped the rolling blackout from stage 3 to stage 6 in the early hours of Sunday morning.

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