The latest data on the registration of large private electricity generation facilities spells more trouble for Eskom, which has already seen demand for its power plummet in the last five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) registered 112 private generation facilities with capacities exceeding 100 kWp between January and March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The total capacity of the registered facilities was 1,327MW, while the estimated combined investment value was R28.22 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All but two of the generation facilities were solar PV plants. The 110 installations had a combined capacity of 847MW, while the remaining 480MW of capacity came from wind power farms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The majority of the solar facilities were in the Western Cape with 41 facilities, followed by Gauteng with 27 plants, and Limpopo with 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the top three provinces in terms of total installed capacity and investment cost were the Northern Cape, Free State, and the North West. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six photovoltaic solar facilities in the Free State accounted for nearly half the total capacity registered at 660MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The province is increasingly highly regarded for its solar potential, where investors previously heavily favoured the Cape provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite grid capacity limits, the Northern Cape has remained a hotspot for renewables, with 490MW registered in the province across four facilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
480MW of that came from two wind power farms, while two solar PV facilities contributed the remaining 10MW. Nersa said the four installations were part of one project, with an approximate R13.45-billion cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2018, Nersa has registered facilities with a combined generating capacity of 19,327MW at an investment value of R389.307 billion. Another 19,000MW has been registered since 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The registrations accelerated after President Cyril Ramaphosa scrapped the requirement for facilities to obtain a generation licence in 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be noted that the Nersa-registered capacity excludes the solar PV installed on home and business rooftops, which was estimated at more than 7,600MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paired with the loss of many heavy energy users that shut down in recent years, the increased contribution of private generation to South Africa’s energy mix is bad news for Eskom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the year-to-date, the power utility’s residual energy demand has been about 10% lower than in the same period in 2025 and over 16% lower than five years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The reduction has played a major role in avoiding roughly four stages of load shedding throughout the 2026 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Eskom has improved its energy availability factor by 10 percentage points, it is currently at a similar level to years where it still needed to implement rotational power cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early days of the load-shedding crisis, many in the private sector responded by investing heavily in backup power, primarily fuel-powered generators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over time, solar PV, wind generation, and lithium-ion battery energy storage prices declined, making large investments with long-term returns more attractive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2026, many corporations, industrial companies, and agricultural businesses no longer turn to self-generation for energy security, but to cut down their bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eskom’s surging electricity tariffs radically shortened return-on-investment periods to the point where even much smaller installations could deliver returns within five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some experts argue that businesses and individuals, backed by the Presidency’s Operation Vulindelela\u2013driven energy policy reform, pulled the country out of an energy supply crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The private capacity registered by Nersa over roughly eight years is more than double the amount added through the only two power stations Eskom has finished in the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kusile and Medupi coal-fired stations have a combined capacity of 9,600MW, cost an estimated R467 billion, and took nearly two decades to complete. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The latest data on the registration of large private electricity generation facilities spells more trouble for Eskom, which has already seen demand for its power plummet in the last five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":616792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[13871,181,24740,69935,59869,57688,70163,4922,22333],"class_list":["post-647555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-electricity2","tag-eskom","tag-national-energy-regulator-of-south-africa-nersa","tag-operation-vulindlela","tag-president-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-renewables","tag-self-generation","tag-solar-power","tag-wind-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647555"}],"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\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647555"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647691,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647555\/revisions\/647691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Year<\/strong><\/th> Number of generation facilities registered<\/strong><\/th> Capacity <\/strong><\/th> Investment cost <\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead> 2018<\/td> 52<\/td> 26MW<\/td> R525 million<\/td><\/tr> 2019<\/td> 41<\/td> 23MW<\/td> R464 million<\/td><\/tr> 2020<\/td> 124<\/td> 53MW<\/td> R681 million<\/td><\/tr> 2021<\/td> 282<\/td> 134MW<\/td> R1.887 billion<\/td><\/tr> 2022<\/td> 406<\/td> 1,646MW<\/td> R25 billion<\/td><\/tr> 2023<\/td> 405<\/td> 4,490MW<\/td> R84.962 billion<\/td><\/tr> 2024<\/td> 476<\/td> 4,164MW<\/td> R89.539 billion<\/td><\/tr> 2025<\/td> 597<\/td> 7,464MW<\/td> R158.029 billion<\/td><\/tr> Q1 2026<\/td> 112<\/td> 1,327MW<\/td> R28.22 billion<\/td><\/tr> Total<\/strong><\/td> 2,495<\/strong><\/td> 19,327<\/strong>MW<\/td> 389,307<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Load-shedding and tariffs drive South Africans to self-reliance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n