Good news for people who want backup power

Battery prices have plummeted in South Africa in the past few years, making it far more affordable for households and businesses to acquire backup power and shield themselves from unreliable electricity supply.
While Eskom is nearing an entire year without load-shedding, energy expert Mohamed Madhi has warned that a resurgent economy could bring back the much-loathed rotational power cuts.
Although there is no doubt that the power utility has improved the performance of its coal-powered fleet in the past year, it has also benefitted from reduced electricity demand due to increased self-generation and an economic slowdown.
Should the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth increase to 2% or 3% from the 1.9% in 2025, it could place the electricity supply under heavy strain.
Madhi said that the end of load-shedding would depend heavily on Eskom adding Kusile Unit 6 and Medupi Unit 4 to its generating fleet in time for the winter.
The power utility is already late in synchronising the former to the grid.
Eskom also seems to be erring on the side of caution in its load-shedding outlook, which still showed a high risk of load-shedding from April 2025.
In addition, electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has cautioned that the lack of investment in local distribution infrastructure and the high rate of illegal electricity connections could cause more small-scale power interruptions.
Considering the continued uncertainties around energy security, investing in backup battery storage may be a sound decision.
Fortunately, the prices of batteries of all kinds have declined dramatically in recent years due to several factors.
Amid one of the most intense periods of load-shedding in late 2022, MyBroadband compared the prices and features of lithium-ion and deep-cycle lead-acid or gel batteries.
At that point, a newer lithium-ion battery was already a significantly better investment due to its longevity and depth-of-discharge (DoD) rating.
Lead-acid and gel batteries can typically only have half their capacity depleted and recharged up to 250 times before their performance is severely degraded.
Most lithium-ion batteries can have 80% to 90% of their capacities depleted and recharged over several thousand cycles before seeing significantly degraded performance.
While a lithium-ion battery is still a much better investment over the long term, the prices of deep-cycle lead-acid and gel batteries have also plummeted, which could make them worthy of consideration for sporadic power cuts.
The table below shows a comparison of the prices of dee-cycle gel batteries and lithium-ion batteries in November 2022 and January 2025.
November 2022 | January 2025 | Change | |
---|---|---|---|
Deep-cycle gel batteries | |||
600Wh | R2,395 | R1,891 | -21% |
1,200Wh | R4,790 | R2,169 | -55% |
2,400Wh | R7,185 | R2,950 | -59% |
Average | R4,790 | R2,337 | -51% |
Lithium-ion | |||
640Wh | R3,800 | R2,298 | -40% |
1,280Wh | R7,495 | R3,499 | -53% |
2,560Wh | R9,800 | R5,499 | -44% |
Average | R7,031.66 | R3,765.33 | -46% |
Local and international price drivers
The prices of the two other main components in solar power systems — inverters and PV panels — have also dropped significantly in recent years.
A MyBroadband analysis in July 2024 found that the prices of an off-grid system had dropped by between 20% and 28% since the start of that year. That came on the back of significant price cuts towards the end of 2023.
Another MyBroadband comparison showed that the prices of 18 portable power station prices in June 2023 and November 2024 had declined by an average of 50%, an astounding drop over a year and a half.
Among the major driving forces behind the local decline in prices was an influx of imports of backup power products in early 2023 amid severe load-shedding and reports that Eskom had quietly implemented stage 7 or stage 8 load-shedding.
Households also received a small tax rebate for solar panels in the government’s 2023 financial year.
However, the local developments were just one small part in a much bigger global equation.
Research by BloombergNEF shows that global prices of lithium-ion battery packs plunged from $806 per kWh in 2013 to $115 in 2024.
The 86% decline was driven by greater economies of scale in lithium-ion battery production due to increased demand for packs to power electric vehicles (EVs) and backup for renewables.
The graph below shows the average prices of lithium-ion battery packs from 2013 to 2024, according to BloombergNEF.
