Eskom says only 102 551 of its customers are still on load reduction, down from 193 556 four weeks ago, and that it has about 6 855MW of generation capacity above current demand. The figures come from its weekly power system update of 6 November, and they show a utility that is making visible progress on the problem that businesses in some communities still feel, while its weekly coal fleet numbers are mixed.
Load reduction is not load shedding. Shedding is a national cut when there is not enough generation. Load reduction is a local, targeted cut on specific feeders where illegal connections, meter tampering and overloaded networks put equipment at risk. Eskom says South Africa has now gone 539 consecutive days without load shedding, counted from 16 May 2025.
The load reduction footprint has nearly halved in four weeks
In its 6 November statement, Eskom reports that about 1.59 million previously affected customers are back on normal supply, leaving 102 551, or 1.42% of its base of 7.2 million customers. Its 9 October update put the number at 193 556, or 2.7%, so the remaining footprint has fallen by about 47% in four weeks. The 23 October update recorded an 88.6% reduction from the starting point of 1.69 million, and the latest figure is a 94% reduction.
Eskom says seven of nine provinces are fully free of load reduction. The remaining customers are in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Its programme targets 971 feeders, and it says 627 have been removed. The provincial counts it lists, which add up to 627, are 163 in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, 258 in Gauteng, 14 in the Eastern and Western Cape, 177 in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal and 15 in the North West and Northern Cape. Gauteng’s target is 604 feeders, so it has done less than half its share.
One caution on the percentages: Eskom prints 62% for the national share of feeders removed and 41.5% for Gauteng, but its own counts give 64.6% (627 of 971) and 42.7% (258 of 604). The headline customer numbers are consistent with each other, since 1 591 837 removed plus 102 551 remaining is about 1.69 million. We have used the counts and not the printed percentages.
Smart meters and resistance are the bottleneck
Eskom’s method is to fit smart meters on affected feeders so supply can be restored sustainably. It says 526 689 have been installed against a target of 577 347 for high-priority areas, about 91%. It also says resistance, including safety incidents, intimidation and work stoppages, has delayed more than 122 000 planned installations. That matches the figure in our earlier report that 122,000 smart meters were blocked, so the obstruction numbers have not moved. The programme aims to end load reduction by March 2027, and our earlier piece on why Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are the hard part explains why those two provinces carry the risk.
Diesel spending is down R4.81 billion, and last week’s coal numbers were weaker
From 1 April to 5 November Eskom spent R1.26 billion on diesel, against R6.073 billion in the same period last year, a fall of R4.81 billion or 79.19%. It did not run its open-cycle gas turbines at all in the past week, and their load factor for the year is 0.92%, against 5.75% a year ago and an annual target of 3%. This builds on the picture we reported in Eskom’s diesel bill falling 81% while pump prices jumped 58%.
The financial year-to-date energy availability factor, the share of capacity able to produce, is 68.16%, up from 63.21% a year ago. That is a gain of 4.95 percentage points, though Eskom writes it as a 4.95% improvement. The weekly figure tells a less tidy story. For 30 October to 5 November, availability was 69.53%, below the 70.66% of the same week last year. Unplanned capacity losses were 18.41% in the week against 16.82%, and for the year to date they are 18.93%, which Eskom says is 6.05% better than a year ago. Planned maintenance is heavier this year, at 12.75% of capacity against 11.35%. These weekly swings do not undo the year-to-date gains, but they show the improvement is not a straight line.
What it means for businesses
For firms on a feeder that was on the schedule, the news is practical. Fewer scheduled cuts mean less spending on generators, less spoiled stock and fewer lost trading hours, though Eskom has not published any estimate of the economic benefit. For manufacturers and energy-intensive users, Eskom is pitching its spare capacity as room for new demand and for export sales, including its stated ambition to act as a regional electricity hub.
That does not mean power will be cheaper. Our reporting on the doubling of electricity prices since 2020 shows cost remains the larger concern for most businesses.
What is still unknown
Eskom does not explain how it calculates the 6 855MW of capacity above demand. That figure was 5 695MW on 9 October and 4 961MW on 23 October, so it swings widely from week to week. The same statement forecasts an evening peak of 22 353MW against 25 278MW available excluding gas, a margin of 2 925MW. The two numbers measure different things, and the statement does not reconcile them. It also does not say what drove the sharp fall in affected customers between late October and now, or how many of the 102 551 remaining customers are in Gauteng. We could not find independent media coverage of the 6 November release at the time of writing, so every figure here is Eskom’s own and has not been audited by a third party.
