Load shedding caution despite Eskom’s confidence [VIDEO]

As South Africans wait to see if the lights stay on during winter, a former Eskom executive believes the power utility is on the right trajectory to provide stable electricity through the cold winter months.

On Monday, Eskom said it will have more than 2.5gw of power this winter and could avoid load shedding altogether if unplanned breakdowns remain below 13gw.

Transitioning

During the media briefing, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said Eskom is transitioning from “ending load shedding” to “energy saving”.

“That’s very important, and that’s why when we have periodic episodes of load shedding, it’s a significant setback on our ambition to ensure that we are able to sustain that transition.”

ALSO READ: Eskom winter outlook: Here’s how many days of load shedding to expect in SA

Eskom on right track

Former Eskom executive manager Professor Vally Padayachee said this is the first time that Ramokgopa has made a statement about transitioning from load shedding.

“He’s indicating that they are now ready to end load shedding eventually within the next short while, and I’m not sure how that short while pans out.

“I’m confident that Eskom is on the right trajectory, but we must just be careful, there is a risk and they are not out of the woods yet, we will still probably have load shedding as Eskom alluded,” Padayachee said.

Former Eskom executive manager Prof. Vally Padayachee says he believes the power utility is on the right trajectory to provide stable electricity through the winter period. Earlier today, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa announced an expected boost of 2 500 megawatts… pic.twitter.com/W4MB4nz52l

— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) May 5, 2025

Winter load shedding

During the briefing, Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said significant improvements have been made since the Summer 2024/25 outlook.

Marokane said Eskom does not expect load shedding this winter if unplanned outages remain below 13gw.

“If outages increase to 15gw, load shedding would be limited to a maximum of 21 days out of 153 days at Stage 2 – an improvement over the prior winter’s worst-case prediction of Stage 5 load shedding.” 

‘lethal combination’

In late January and February, South Africa experienced different levels of power cuts from stage 3 to stage 6, following nearly ten months of uninterrupted electricity supply.

Marokane acknowledged the five incidents of load shedding, which occurred amid a “lethal combination” of multiple unit trips overlapping with delays in bringing some units back online

Eskom board chairperson Mteto Nyati said the board and management have spent time trying to understand the root causes of these failures and found that they were largely due to “people-related” issues that required holding staff accountable and instilling a high-performance culture.

“We have not been proud of how we performed.”

Diesel savings

Eskom Group Executive for Generation Bheki Nxumalo said the parastatal also produced more energy in the 2025 financial year than in the previous two.

“We continue to make bold decisions with the future in mind: to build a stronger, more reliable power system for the country. 

“We have continued to maintain high levels of planned maintenance as part of efforts to improve fleet reliability in preparation for the high winter demand, while also meeting environmental license conditions and regulatory requirements,” said Nxumalo.

The value of diesel consumption also declined by 45%, resulting in savings of R16 billion. Diesel is mainly used to power open-cycle gas turbines (OGCT) to help the utility meet the peak demand periods.

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