published<\/a> a report in October 2024 stating that electricity consumption in the country was growing fastest in Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cOne of the main sources of growing demand for power is large-scale computing facilities such as data centres and cryptocurrency mining operations,\u201d the EIA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese facilities consume large amounts of electricity, both to run their computing equipment and to keep them cool. Some of the larger facilities can consume as much electricity as a medium-sized power plant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EIA said large-load facilities, primarily cryptocurrency mining facilities, but also data centres and some industrial factories, have entered into voluntary curtailment agreements with the Texas grid system operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These function similarly to Eskom\u2019s load curtailment programme, where these large users agree to temporarily reduce their power consumption during periods of high demand or low generator availability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
News in September 2023 that Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms received $32 million (around R570 million) for curtailing its load outraged Texans, who were enduring a heatwave and had been asked not to use air conditioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eskom grid under pressure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
While Eskom is contemplating a future of reduced grid demand, it is currently in danger of needing to implement load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eskom reported that between 13 and 19 June 2025, the average level of unplanned outages reached 15,076 MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is above the 15,000 MW level it warned would likely result in a minimum of 21 days of stage 2 load-shedding during the winter period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eskom published its winter 2025 outlook last month, stating that load-shedding would not be necessary if breakdowns remained under 13,000 MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus far, the state-owned power utility has avoided implementing rotational power cuts, but it has been forced to burn a lot of diesel to run its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its year-to-date OCGT load factor stands at 11.73%, much higher than the 5.78% recorded during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eskom spent approximately R4.51 billion on fuel for the OCGT fleet, generating 768.64 GWh. This is higher than the 378.75 GWh generated during the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It stated that diesel usage is expected to decline as more units return to service following the completion of long-term repairs and maintenance activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eskom added that, despite the high use of OCGTs, diesel expenditure remains within budget for the current financial year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eskom Group CEO Dan Marokane says South Africa’s state-owned power utility is looking into opportunities to support Bitcoin mining, AI, and data centres for its future growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":534211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92837,44696,27995,40380],"tags":[187,31156,181],"class_list":["post-600514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-cryptocurrency","category-energy","category-trending","tag-bitcoin","tag-dan-marokane","tag-eskom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600515,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600514\/revisions\/600515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}