- Eskom today announced that it has delivered to South Africa 105 consecutive days without loadshedding.
- Eskom’s sustained technical improvements have ensured a reliable power system, meeting more than 97% of electricity demand this winter and financial year to date.
Unplanned losses due to breakdowns now at 8 948MW, well below the 10 000MW threshold, highlighting the structural progress in plant performance as a result of the ongoing implementation of the Generation Recovery Plan.
Between 15 and 28 August 2025, planned maintenance increased, averaging 6 968MW. During this period, the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) fluctuated between 64% and 75%, with the month-to-date average rising to 66.15%. This upward trend reflects growing stability and improved reliability across the generation fleet. These figures exclude Kusile Unit 6, which has been contributing 720MW to the national grid since 23 March 2025. Although not yet in commercial operation, the unit is expected to reach that milestone by September 2025.
To further strengthen grid stability, Eskom is planning to return a total of 4 830MW of generation capacity to service ahead of the evening peak on Monday, 01 September 2025, and throughout the coming week.
Between 1 April and 28 August 2025, the Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF), which reflects the percentage of generation capacity lost due to unplanned outages, further decreased to 27.3%. This represents a week-on-week improvement of approximately 0.55%, although it remains about 1.6% higher than the 25.67% recorded during the same period last year.
The open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) load factor further decreased to 0.16% this week from 0.78% the previous week (21–28 August 2025), with OCGTs utilised strategically to address occasional system constraints during morning and evening peak periods.
The available generation capacity currently stands at 29 132MW, while tonight’s electricity demand is expected to reach 25 797MW. The current capacity is sufficient to meet both today’s demand and anticipated requirements over the weekend.
Eskom is scheduled to announce its Summer Outlook in September 2025.
Key Performance Highlights:
- Unplanned outages averaged a low 7 706MW over the past week, significantly lower than the 10 857MW recorded during the same period last year. This marks a notable year-on-year reduction of 3 151MW and is well below the base case projection of 13 000MW, outperforming expectations by a substantial margin of 5 294MW.
- Year-to-date, planned maintenance has averaged 5 282MW, accounting for 11.25% of total generation capacity. This reflects a slight increase from the previous week and a 1.0% rise compared to the same period last year.
- The year-to-date EAF further increased to 60.98%, excluding the 720MW contribution from Kusile Unit 6. This figure is below the 63.52% recorded during the same period last year, mainly due to a 1.6% and 1.0% YTD increase in unplanned and planned maintenance respectively compared to the previous year.
- Over a period of approximately five months, from 1 April to 28 August 2025, Eskom spent R5.921 billion on fuel for Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) plants, generating 1 000.89GWh of electricity. This represents a significant increase compared to the 525.44GWh produced during the same period last year. It is important to note that diesel expenditure is not uniform throughout the year but varies seasonally in response to system demand and operational requirements.
- The year-to-date load factor for OCGTs has decreased to 8.14%, reflecting a 0.39% decrease compared to the previous week. This figure remains higher than the 4.28% recorded during the same period last year.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
