South Africa has gone 170 days without load shedding, Eskom has confirmed. The power utility reported only 26 hours of interruptions in April and May during this financial year.
To maintain supply reliability, Eskom plans to return 2 400 megawatts of generation capacity ahead of the evening peak on Monday, 3 November 2025, ensuring a stable electricity supply throughout the week.
In its Summer Outlook, published on 5 September 2025 for the period 1 September 2025 to 31 March 2026, Eskom projected no load shedding, attributing the improvement to sustained performance gains from the Generation Recovery Plan.
Performance Highlights
Year to date, the Unplanned Capability Loss Factor has dropped to 25.16 percent, showing a week to week improvement and remaining below last year’s 25.36 percent.
Planned maintenance averaged 5 312 megawatts, representing 11.32 percent of total generation capacity, slightly lower than the previous week but marginally higher than the same period last year.
Between 1 April and 30 October 2025, Eskom generated 1 023.67 gigawatt hours from Open Cycle Gas Turbine plants, spending 6.074 billion rand on diesel.
This compares to 947.34 gigawatt hours generated during the same period last year. The Open Cycle Gas Turbine load factor improved slightly to 5.87 percent, compared with 5.43 percent last year.
While system stability continues to improve, illegal connections and meter tampering remain a concern. These activities can damage infrastructure and pose serious safety risks, prompting load reduction measures in high risk areas to protect both communities and the grid.
Roadmap to Eliminate Load Reduction by 2027
Eskom aims to fully eliminate load reduction by 2027. About 1.69 million of its 7.2 million customers, across 971 feeders mainly in Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal, are expected to benefit from these measures.
Key interventions include expanding free basic electricity to more households and installing 577 000 smart meters by 2026, with completion expected in 2027. These measures are intended to enhance demand management and improve grid stability.
Eskom has urged communities to support these initiatives by reporting illegal connections, using electricity responsibly, and safeguarding infrastructure.
The utility continues to leverage technology, infrastructure upgrades, and public cooperation to build a safer, smarter, and more reliable power system for all South Africans.
Incidents affecting Eskom’s infrastructure can be reported via the Eskom Crime Line at 0800 112 722 or on WhatsApp at 081 333 3323.
