South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom said the national electricity system entered 2026 in a more stable and resilient condition than at any point in the past five years, easing pressure from chronic power cuts that have weighed heavily on the economy.
In a statement released on Monday, January 12, Eskom attributed the improvement largely to the Generation Recovery Plan launched in April 2023, which focused on restoring plant performance, improving maintenance planning and reducing unplanned outages across its ageing coal-fired fleet.
The utility said South Africa currently has about 4,400 megawatts (MW) of additional available generation capacity compared with the same period in 2025, helping to stabilise supply and reduce the frequency and severity of load shedding.
Eskom said gains were evident across key performance indicators. The energy availability factor (EAF), a critical measure of plant performance, rose from 56.03 percent in April 2023 to 64.55 percent at the start of 2026. At the same time, unplanned losses declined sharply, while planned maintenance which peaked at 12.76 percent in 2025 eased to 9.32 percent, moving closer to international benchmarks.
The improved operational performance has also allowed Eskom to significantly cut its reliance on costly open-cycle gas turbines, which are typically fuelled by diesel and used during supply shortfalls. The reduction in turbine usage delivered diesel savings of about 16 billion rand ($973 million) during the 2025 financial year, the utility said.
South Africa has endured one of the world’s most severe and prolonged power crises, with rolling blackouts disrupting households, industry and public services for more than a decade. Load shedding intensified sharply in 2022 and 2023, when frequent outages reached record levels and forced many businesses to invest in costly backup power solutions.
According to FTI Consulting, the electricity crisis has had a lasting drag on the economy. In an analysis published in October 2025, the firm said persistent power cuts reduced productivity across multiple sectors, contributing to weaker economic growth, job losses, declining tax revenues and subdued investment.
FTI Consulting also cited estimates by economists Janse van Rensburg and Morema suggesting that load shedding may have shaved between 0.2 and 4.2 percentage points off South Africa’s real GDP growth in 2022, depending on the methodology used.
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For Eskom and policymakers, the recent stabilisation offers some relief after years of acute supply stress. However, analysts caution that the improvement remains fragile and continues to rely heavily on the performance of coal-fired power stations, which account for the bulk of South Africa’s generation capacity and are among the oldest in the world.
Eskom has acknowledged that sustaining recent gains will require consistent maintenance discipline and further investment to prevent a relapse into widespread outages. The utility is also grappling with financial pressures, operational backlogs and the technical limits of ageing infrastructure.
In the medium to long term, South Africa’s electricity security will depend on broader structural changes to the power system. These include accelerating the rollout of renewable energy, expanding and modernising the transmission network, and gradually reducing dependence on coal in line with the country’s climate commitments.
The government has pledged to diversify the energy mix while ensuring reliability and affordability, a balancing act that remains politically and economically sensitive. While recent improvements suggest progress is possible, industry experts say sustained reform and investment will be needed to ensure that power cuts do not again undermine Africa’s most industrialised economy.
