On Friday, Eskom marked 100 days of providing power without load-shedding.
Given the damage to the economy, not to mention the general disruption to citizens’ lives, power cuts cause, the utility does indeed have reason to celebrate. But the prolonged pause in load-shedding will also be welcomed by the public, whose lives might now finally return to a semblance of normality.
For Eskom, an added bonus is that the improved performance in its generation capacity is, according to officials, accompanied by a decrease in the use of open-cycle gas turbines, which the utility relies on to meet increased demand during peak hours. The latter will save the state-owned entity R6.2bn, according to CEO Dan Marokane, who even hinted at the possibility of Eskom turning a profit in the 2025 financial year.
Eskom officials ... attribute the improved performance of its generation fleet to the ‘diligent execution of recovery plans’, ‘aggressive’ planned maintenance, and the efforts of staff
The last time the country enjoyed a prolonged period without load-shedding was from September 8 to December 11 2020.
Eskom officials, while acknowledging the continuing risk of load-shedding, attribute the improved performance of its generation fleet to the “diligent execution of recovery plans”, “aggressive” planned maintenance, and the efforts of staff.
With Eskom’s energy availability factor having increased from 54.56% at the end of the 2023/24 financial year to nearly 62% now, the figures seem to bear out the executives’ optimism.
Eskom’s improved performance is good news for an economy that has been severely hamstrung by an unreliable power supply. In the process, many especially small to medium-sized businesses unable to shoulder the cost of mitigating power shortages have been forced to go under. And with every business failure more South Africans have been forced to join our already long unemployment queues.
The continued improvement in Eskom’s performance will require the support of all its stakeholders — especially the government, its shareholder. The utility itself must also pay attention to improving its relationship with consumers, who expect from it a reliable and affordable service.
Importantly, Eskom will have to improve its ability to collect revenues and bring its runaway debt under control.
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