Electricity generation improves despite municipal debts: Ramokgopa

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The Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa addressed the media on Monday about the performance of electricity distribution and generation in South Africa.

During his address, Dr Ramokgopa provided an overview of the state of electricity in the country, highlighting key statistics.

He marked the occasion by celebrating 100 days without load shedding by Eskom, a watershed moment given the persistent rolling blackouts since February 2022, which only ceased in April 2024.

Hours of load shedding per month for the past 5 years

For the continuing winter season, the Minister said Eskom’s performance means that there is likely to be no load shedding at all as unplanned generation loss is anticipated to be no more than 12 000 MW, which is 2 000 MW more than the 14 000 MW buffer needed to prevent load shedding.

The Minister added that in June of the previous year (2023), the unplanned capacity loss factor was sitting at 17 000 MW due to the unreliability of the units. This figure has since been reduced to 12 000 MW, indicating an improvement of 5 000 MW in the system’s performance.

Use of diesel

The minister stated that Eskom had saved R6.2 billion in diesel costs from 1st April to 30th June 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. Eskom uses open cycle gas turbine diesel generators for electricity when the rest of Eskom’s 14 power stations are unable to keep up with demand.

The graphic below shows the amount of electricity generated using coal compared to electricity generated using diesel.

Municipal debts 

Ramokgopa also mentioned the worrying debt owed to Eskom by municipalities, which totals R78 billion, and he rejected that if things continue on the current trajectory, Eskom will be owed a sum of R3.1 trillion by 2050.

The minister stated that rising tariffs are making electricity unaffordable, contributing to what he calls “energy poverty” where households cannot afford electricity despite sufficient generation.

With electricity tariff increases taking place in municipalities across South Africa, it can be difficult to understand exactly how customers in each municipality will be affected.

In order to show how much municipal customers will have to pay for electricity due to the new tariff increases, we have put together a series of graphics to show what a medium-sized household with a prepaid meter in each household will have to pay to get 800 units (c/KWh) of electricity.

Comparison

For this scenario, an apple-to-apple comparison was made between the three metros: City of Johannesburg, City of Cape Town and eThekwini, excluding VAT.

In Johannesburg, City Power charges a minimum of R2161 for 2024/25 period, which is R244 more than the previous year.

The City of Cape Town prepaid customers from medium-sized households will pay at least R2539 for 800 units of electricity for the period 2024/25, which is R267 more than the previous year.

For eThekwini, 800 units of prepaid electricity for a medium household will cost R2354, which is R167 more than the previous year.