Eskom says 202,590 customers remain on load reduction

Eskom says 202,590 customers remain affected by load reduction, with its restrictions confined to parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, according to its power-system update released on Friday.

The utility reported that 593 electricity feeders had been removed from load reduction under its eradication programme. That is 15 more than the 578 recorded in its previous update on 25 September.

The increase was in the combined Free State and KwaZulu-Natal grouping, where the number of feeders removed rose from 135 to 150. The Free State was already among the seven provinces Eskom described as free of Eskom load reduction last week.

Eskom said about 1.49 million customers were no longer affected, representing approximately 88% of the 1.69 million targeted by the programme. Its deadline for eliminating the remaining restrictions is March 2027.

Load reduction involves targeted local power cuts to protect overloaded electricity networks. It is separate from nationwide loadshedding caused by insufficient generation to meet demand.

On generation, Eskom reported 504 consecutive days without loadshedding since 16 May 2025, compared with 497 days in the previous weekly report.

Its energy availability factor, which tracks how much generating capacity is available, averaged 69.72% from 25 September to 1 October. That was lower than the previous week’s 70.44%, although above the 66.92% recorded in the corresponding week last year.

Average unplanned outages increased from 7,622MW in the previous reporting week to 8,180MW. They remained below the 9,587MW reported for the comparable period a year earlier.

The financial-year-to-date availability factor edged up from 68.06% to 68.11%. Eskom put diesel spending from 1 April to 1 October at R1.16 billion, compared with R5.95 billion a year earlier, a reduction of R4.79 billion.

File photograph: a Tutuka–Beta transmission-line pylon in the Free State, photographed on 15 December 2006, illustrating electricity infrastructure. Photo: NJR ZA / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Display crops remain under the same licence.