105 Days Without Loadshedding: Eskom Reports Stable Power System as Winter Concludes

29 August 2025

Eskom has reached 105 consecutive days without loadshedding, the power utility announced today. This milestone comes as South Africa's winter season concludes, with the national grid maintaining stability through consistently low levels of unplanned outages.

Key Performance Highlights

The current streak builds upon a successful Financial Year 2025, which recorded 352 loadshedding-free days—a dramatic improvement from just 36 days without power cuts in FY2024. South Africa has maintained uninterrupted power since 15 May 2025, with only 26 hours of loadshedding implemented between April and August 2025.

Eskom reports that unplanned losses due to breakdowns currently stand at 8,948MW, comfortably below the critical 10,000MW threshold that typically triggers loadshedding. This figure represents significant structural progress in plant performance resulting from the ongoing Generation Recovery Plan.

Between mid and late August, the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) fluctuated between 64% and 75%, with the month-to-date average reaching 66.15%. This marks a continued improvement in generation fleet reliability, though still short of Eskom's ultimate target.

Current System Status

Available generation capacity currently stands at 29,132MW against tonight's expected demand of 25,797MW, providing a reasonable buffer for the system. Eskom plans to return an additional 4,830MW of generation capacity to service ahead of the evening peak on Monday, 1 September, further strengthening grid stability.

Notably, these figures exclude Kusile Unit 6, which has been contributing 720MW to the grid since 23 March 2025, though it hasn't yet reached commercial operation status—expected by September 2025.

Year-to-Date Performance

The Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF) decreased to 27.3% between April and August 2025, showing a week-on-week improvement of approximately 0.55%. However, this remains about 1.6% higher than the 25.67% recorded during the same period last year.

Planned maintenance has averaged 5,282MW year-to-date, accounting for 11.25% of total generation capacity. Between 15-28 August, planned maintenance increased to an average of 6,968MW, indicating Eskom's continued focus on catching up with essential maintenance work.

The utility has dramatically reduced its reliance on costly emergency generation. Open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) operated at just 0.16% load factor this past week, down from 0.78% the previous week, with diesel spend remaining under budget.

Outlook for Spring 2025

With just two days remaining in Eskom's Winter Outlook period, the power system appears well-positioned to maintain stability moving into spring. The Winter Outlook published in May indicated that loadshedding would not be necessary if unplanned outages stayed below 13,000MW—a threshold Eskom has consistently maintained.

Eskom is scheduled to announce its Summer Outlook in September 2025, which will provide projections for the coming months.

Transformer Protection and Infrastructure Concerns

Despite the improved generation performance, Eskom continues to face challenges with local distribution infrastructure. The utility has urged customers to avoid illegal connections and meter bypassing, which strain the network and can lead to transformer overloads and equipment damage.

In high-risk areas, Eskom reports implementing targeted load reduction during peak hours to prevent potential damage to transformers and other critical equipment.

Key Terms Explained

Energy Availability Factor (EAF): The percentage of Eskom's total generation capacity that is available to produce electricity. Higher is better—an EAF of 75% means three-quarters of Eskom's fleet is available to generate power. Industry standard targets are typically 80% or higher.

Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF): The percentage of generation capacity lost due to unexpected breakdowns or failures. Lower is better—a UCLF of 27% means over a quarter of Eskom's generation capacity is offline due to unplanned issues. International best practice is typically below 10%.

Open-Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs): Emergency power generators that run on diesel fuel. They're expensive to operate (costing roughly 6-8 times more than coal generation) but can be started quickly when the grid is under pressure. The load factor represents what percentage of their potential capacity was actually used.

1,000MW: Enough electricity to power approximately 650,000 South African households. When unplanned outages drop by 3,000MW (as they have year-on-year), that's equivalent to restoring power to nearly 2 million homes.

Eskom will provide its next scheduled update on Friday, 5 September 2025.