Eskom gets major boost

Eskom has announced that Kusile Power Station’s Unit 6 was brought online at 16:45 on Sunday, 23 March. This will add 800MW to the national grid.

Eskom said that launching Kusile’s sixth unit marked a crucial step toward completing one of South Africa’s largest infrastructure projects. Once operating at full capacity, Kusile will contribute 4,800MW to the grid.

The launch is also a key milestone in Eskom’s strategic objective of adding 2,500MW of new capacity to the grid by March 2025, the power utility said.

“Eskom is at a critical point returning megawatts to the grid as we are currently in a constrained state,” said Eskom group executive for generation Bheki Nxumalo.

“As we celebrate this progress, our focus is now on ensuring that Unit 6 achieves commercial operation in the second half of 2025, further strengthening South Africa’s energy security.”

Eskom CEO Dan Marokane added that the utility is determined to deliver on its targets set out in the Generation Recovery Plan.

“Kusile Unit 6’s addition is proof that we are making continued progress in stabilising and strengthening South Africa’s electricity supply,” Marokane said.

“We reiterate our commitment to ensuring that South Africa is in no way returning to the levels of load-shedding that we experienced in 2023 and our focus remains on delivering a more reliable, resilient, and sustainable power system for the country.”

Eskom said that Kusile’s sister project, Medupi Power Station, will see its Unit 4 return to operation by the end of next month. This will bring another 800MW back online.

“Both South Africa’s new build power station projects will then be essentially completed once Kusile Unit 6 is in commercial operation,” the state-owned power utility said.

“Additionally, Kusile is the first power station in South Africa and Africa to implement Wet Flue Gas Desulphurisation (WFGD) technology,” Eskom added.

“This ensures compliance with air quality standards and aligns with global best practices to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.”

News of Kusile’s imminent completion and the return of Medupi Unit 4 comes after Eskom had to implement load-shedding three times so far in 2025 due to capacity constraints.

The most recent of these was on Wednesday, 19 March, after five generation units broke down before the evening peak demand period, forcing Eskom to implement Stage 2 load-shedding.