Eskom Records Strongest EAF Performance in Six Years

South Africa’s power system is showing further signs of recovery, with Eskom recording its strongest financial year-to-date Energy Availability Factor (EAF) in nearly six years and continuing to keep load shedding off the grid.

Eskom said its EAF rose to 67.24% between April 1 and August 6, 2026, up from 60.05% during the same period last year. The utility added that this was its best year-to-date performance since November 18, 2020.

The improvement means more generating capacity is available to meet demand. Compared with three years ago, Eskom’s EAF has increased by 11.9%, returning about 5.9GW of generation capacity to the grid. More than 85% of the coal fleet is now operating at availability levels between 70% and 92%.

The stronger performance has also helped reduce unplanned outages. Between July 31 and August 6, average unplanned outages fell to 7,718MW from 10,758MW a year earlier, a reduction of 3,039MW, or 28.3%.

Eskom noted that the decline is roughly equivalent to the generating capacity of a power station such as Tutuka. The Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor also improved, falling to 16.12% from 22.60% during the same period last year.

Planned maintenance averaged 10.84% during the week, broadly in line with the 10.87% recorded a year earlier. Eskom also had 3,360MW in cold reserve because available generation exceeded immediate demand.

The stronger performance has allowed the utility to cut its reliance on diesel-fired generation. Diesel was used selectively during peak demand periods and to maintain the required reserves under the South African Grid Code, but overall consumption has fallen sharply.

For the financial year to August 6, Eskom spent R948.46 million on diesel, compared with R5.73 billion during the same period last year. That represents an 83.44% reduction.

Generation from Open-Cycle Gas Turbines, which are largely used when additional power is needed, has also fallen significantly. OCGT generation stood at 121.77GWh year-to-date, about 87.44% lower than a year earlier, while the OCGT load factor dropped to 1.17% from 9.33%.

448 Days Without Load Shedding

The latest figures come as South Africa marks 448 consecutive days without load shedding. Eskom disclosed that electricity demand was met 100% of the time between April 1 and August 6, while its Winter Outlook continues to forecast no load shedding through August 31.

The improvement is important for households and businesses that have endured years of power cuts. More reliable generation means fewer disruptions to production, trading and household activities, while lower diesel use also reduces the cost of supplying electricity.

Eskom’s recovery, however, is not the same as saying all electricity supply problems have been solved.

The utility is still dealing with load reduction in areas where illegal connections, meter tampering, electricity theft and overloaded networks are damaging infrastructure. Six provinces have now been removed completely from load reduction, while work continues in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

About 1.196 million customers have been taken off load reduction schedules, representing 70.8% of the 1.69 million customers originally targeted. Eskom aims to remove load reduction from a seventh province by October 2026 and eliminate it nationwide by 2027.

So far, 565 feeders have been removed from load reduction, representing about 58% of the 971-feeder target.

Smart-meter installation is also progressing, with 504,977 meters installed on affected feeders, or 87.4% of the 577,347 target for high-priority areas. Eskom said about 93% of the installations are concentrated in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.

The utility revealed that resistance, safety incidents, intimidation and work stoppages have slowed some installations, affecting more than 122,000 planned connections.

Eskom is also expanding access to Free Basic Electricity, with 556,409 customers now registered, about 15% above the previous baseline of 485,000.

The aforementioned performance figures suggest that Eskom is gradually moving beyond the worst period of the power crisis, but the utility still faces the challenge of keeping its generating fleet reliable while fixing damaged and overloaded distribution networks.

The significance is clear for South Africa; the end of load shedding is providing much-needed breathing room for the economy, but maintaining that progress will depend on Eskom sustaining the gains in generation, keeping maintenance under control and resolving the network problems that continue to leave some communities without dependable electricity.