Good news about load-shedding

The cost of power cuts to South Africa’s economy plunged 83% last year as supply stabilized, a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research report showed. 

The economy forfeited 481 billion rand in output due to the outages, known locally as loadshedding, down from as much as 2.9 trillion rand in 2023 when there were record blackouts, according to the report released Monday. 

Gross domestic product totaled 4.7 trillion rand last year, 0.6% more than in 2023, according to the state statistics agency. 

The improvement came after state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. increased maintenance and took other measures to improve the reliability of its coal-fired plants that generate the bulk of the nation’s electricity supply.

Still, a streak of uninterrupted electricity has ended, with Eskom implementing intermittent outages this year. Auxiliary diesel turbines — designed to supply power during peak demand — are also being utilized more, the utility’s data shows.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa this month warned that the system remained vulnerable because the procurement of more generation capacity has faced repeated delays.

The nation’s sole nuclear power station, once regarded as Eskom’s most-reliable plant, has been among the units that have broken down.

Eskom said it is working to continue improving its fleet performance, which had an average 60% energy availability factor last year — the highest since 2021.

While overall generation capacity remained unchanged, electricity demand fell 3% in 2024, helping the utility maintain supply, and it “continues to trend down,” it said.