South African utility Eskom reached 365 consecutive days without loadshedding on May 15, marking the first uninterrupted year of electricity supply since September 2018.

The company’s latest update says it is continuing to make steady progress in strengthening power system stability with gains driven by sustained improvements in plant performance, reliability and operational discipline.

Loadshedding in South Africa first began in late 2007 before intensifying in the late 2010s and early 2020s. The country went ten months without loadshedding between March 2024 and January 2025.

Chris Ahlfeldt, energy specialist at Blue Horizon Energy Consulting Services, told pv magazine that lower demand, rising tariffs and the rapid build-out of behind-the-meter rooftop solar PV capacity, now estimated at more than 7.5 GW, has helped to stop loadshedding for now.

Ahlfeldt added that while Eskom has improved its energy availability factor (EAF), which measures the utility’s maximum possible generation capacity, to 62%, the increase has come at a premium for customers as the costs to restore and keep expensive coal plants running for longer are still being passed on.

“Fortunately Eskom’s diesel usage has decreased with the increased EAF, but they still depend on it during peak periods, highlighting an opportunity for lower cost clean energy, battery storage, and flexible demand solutions,” Ahlfeldt said.

Figures from Eskom show diesel expenditure between April 1 and May 28 this year reached ZAR 559.17 million ($34.4 million), down on the ZAR 3.426 billion incurred over the same time period last year.

“This continued reduction demonstrates both the cost savings and the operational improvements achieved through Eskom’s ongoing turnaround efforts,” Eskom’s latest update adds. “Overall, this positive trend highlights the growing stability and efficiency of the power system.” 

The utility adds that it has managed to eliminate load reduction, a targeted intervention which sees Eskom intentionally cut electricity to prevent local equipment from overloading, exploding or failing, for over 651,000 households nationwide. The figure is equivalent to 39% of targeted households. Full elimination has been achieved in the country’s Northern and Western Cape, with work ongoing to address underlying localized network constraints, Eskom said.

Ahlfeldt added that South Africa has reached a critical phase in implementing major electricity market reforms, including the introduction of a wholesale market following draft documents recently released by the country’s energy regulator (NERSA) covering vesting contracts, trading rules and wholesale pricing.

“Unfortunately, these draft documents show some favoritism to protect the incumbent utility’s expensive and environmentally non-compliant coal generation assets,” Ahlfeldt told pv magazine. “If the rules go too far to protect the incumbent utility’s revenue rather than incentivizing them to compete, South Africa will likely see limited private investment in new infrastructure and consumers will ultimately be charged for electricity that is more expensive, less reliable, and generates more pollution.”

Ahlfeldt called on Eskom to take the opportunity to modernize its business model and adapt to South Africa’s emerging competitive electricity market, rather than trying to preserve market share by limiting competition. 

“Eskom could shift its focus to where it can add the most value under the new market model while increasing flexibility of its generation fleet so that it can respond to short-term market pricing signals, variable renewable energy output, and changing demand patterns,” he said.