POWER TO THE PEOPLE

South Africans can expect zero load shedding this summer, with the power grid showing more krag. 

This was the message from Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa during his August media briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Ramokgopa said that disciplined maintenance, unit returns, and strategic upgrades are finally translating into tangible, near-term resilience for households and businesses.

The briefing, which draws on the Department of Electricity and Energy’s August 2025 State of Electricity report, indicates that unplanned outages are trending down and the grid shows signs of strengthened resilience ahead of the coming summer.

Ramokgopa opened by acknowledging the progress while tempering expectations. 

He said: “What we’re seeing is a recovery trajectory delivering real results - lower unplanned losses, higher reliability metrics, and a clearer path to secure generation capacity for the 2025/26 summer.

“We are not claiming victory, but we are confident that the combination of disciplined maintenance, returning units to service, and strategic upgrades will continue to strengthen the grid’s resilience.”

Key numbers presented in the briefing portray a sector moving away from the worst days of load shedding toward a more stable operating envelope. 

There has been no load shedding since 15 May 2025, with only 26 hours recorded between 1 April and 31 July 2025. Between 1 April and 7 August 2025, the Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) fell to 28.35%, a week-on-week improvement of about 0.23%.

The ministry cautioned that the system remains sensitive to external pressures and the realities of operating a large, aging fleet - still, the data point to meaningful gains.

Ramokgopa stated that the year-to-date Energy Availability Factor (EAF) stood at 60.14 percent by 8 August 2025, up roughly 4.4 percentage points from April 2025. 

The weekly EAF oscillated between 62 percent and 70 percent, with a month-to-date average of 65.38 percent, signalling growing fleet stability and reliability.

Ramokgopa added that notable milestones include Koeberg Unit 1 returning to service, Kusile units coming back online, and Medupi Unit 4 synchronising in July 2025, all of which aim to reinforce security of supply as the grid moves through a transition period.