Eskom saved R4.84 billion in 5 months

Eskom saved R4.84 billion on diesel expenditure year-on-year during the 2026 winter season.

Between 1 April and 3 September 2026, it spent R1.08 billion on diesel. In the same period last year, it spent R5.93 billion

This constitutes an 81.64% decline in diesel expenditure – and Eskom said this was possible thanks to two reasons.

“Eskom’s year-to-date Energy Availability Factor (EAF) has risen to 67.79%, its highest level since 2020, while unplanned outages have reduced from 34.48% to 19.47%,” said Eskom in a statement.

“Together, these improvements have restored 6,888MW of generation capacity to the grid compared to three years ago, almost equivalent to the combined capacity of Kusile and Kriel power stations.”

Eskom said these gains prove the success of Eskom’s turnaround strategy and its contribution towards national economic growth.

In fact, Eskom even noted that it currently has 6,220MW of system capacity in cold reserve due to excess capacity.

Load reduction nearly over

Other successes in recent months include the Load Reduction Eradication Programme.

According to Eskom, about 1.2 million customers have been moved from load reduction to normal supply.

Furthermore, seven of South Africa’s nine provinces are completely free from load reduction.

Load-reduction is implemented in high-risk areas where illegal connections and meter tampering are prevalent.

To solve these challenges, Eskom is rolling out smart meters, expanding its Free Basic Electricity support, and integrating Distributed Energy Resources.

So far, 512,257 smart meters have been installed on load reduction feeders, which is approximately 89% of the 577,347 target.

Most installations are found in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and KwaZulu-Natal, as this is where network pressure is the highest.

Eskom maintains that it will completely eradicate load reduction by March 2027.