{"id":90686,"date":"2025-09-29T17:03:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding"},"modified":"2025-09-29T17:29:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:29:35","slug":"a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding","title":{"rendered":"A Huge Nail in the Coffin for Load Shedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>South Africa has taken a huge step towards declaring the end of load shedding in the country, with Eskom announcing that Unit 6 of Kusile Power Station has officially entered commercial operation.<\/p>\n

This milestone means that the full 9,600MW capacity has been unlocked across Eskom\u2019s flagship power stations, Kusile and Medupi, giving significant support to the grid.<\/p>\n

It also marks the end of the construction of the two power stations, which have been billions of rands over budget and delayed by more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Medupi and Kusile were started in 2007, and the plan was for the power stations to be completed in 2014. However, neither met their deadline<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Both projects exceeded their budgets by a combined R300 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, these stations form the backbone of the country\u2019s baseload electricity supply. With Unit 6 now online, Kusile and Medupi can deliver a combined 9,600MW when operating at full capacity, significantly strengthening South Africa\u2019s electricity supply,\u201d Eskom said.<\/p>\n

Eskom said that since Unit 6\u2019s synchronisation in March, it has consistently met performance benchmarks, contributed to grid reliability, and helped meet electricity demand 97% of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedupi and Kusile will remain central to South Africa\u2019s electricity supply for many years to come. Both stations are designed for an operational lifespan of approximately 50 years,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Commercial operation indicates that the unit has passed all required testing and optimisation phases and is now fully integrated into Eskom\u2019s operational fleet.<\/p>\n

Although the unit has been supplying electricity to the grid since its synchronisation on 23 March 2025, its contribution has not been reflected in official reporting until now.<\/p>\n

From this point onward, Unit 6\u2019s output will be included in the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) calculations, contributing to Eskom\u2019s overall performance metrics.<\/p>\n

This is notable given that Eskom\u2019s EAF performance has already hit four-year highs, sitting above 70%. At these levels of performance, load shedding should not even be on the menu.<\/p>\n

The country has gone 135 consecutive days without load shedding, with only 26 hours recorded between 1 April and 25 September 2025.<\/p>\n

Despite the turnaround in performance and confidence that outages can be kept at bay, Eskom and the energy department have not yet declared the end of load shedding.<\/p>\n

While performance has stated a miraculous turnaround, overall energy demand is also lower\u2014partly due to customers turning to alternatives and partly due to energy costs.<\/p>\n

The grid needs to add more capacity to support economic growth and also to account for the coming loss of generating units which will reach their end-of-life over the coming decade.<\/p>\n

To this point, Eskom said that it is accelerating efforts to expand its renewable energy portfolio to complement its baseload infrastructure.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. South Africa has taken a huge step towards declaring the end of load shedding in the country, with Eskom announcing that Unit 6 of Kusile Power Station has officially entered commercial operation. This milestone means that the full 9,600MW capacity has been unlocked across Eskom\u2019s flagship power stations, Kusile and Medupi, giving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":90685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-90686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nA Huge Nail in the Coffin for Load Shedding - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Africa has taken a huge step towards declaring the end of load shedding in the country, with Eskom announcing that ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Huge Nail in the Coffin for Load Shedding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"South Africa has taken a huge step towards declaring the end of load shedding in the country, with Eskom announcing that ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T17:03:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T17:29:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1759154314.408115.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"A Huge Nail in the Coffin for Load Shedding\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-29T17:03:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-29T17:29:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding\"},\"wordCount\":462,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1759154314.408115.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/a-huge-nail-in-the-coffin-for-load-shedding\",\"name\":\"A Huge Nail in the Coffin for Load Shedding - 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