South Africans pump R89.7 billion into dumping Eskom

South Africa’s power regulator registered a record 501 new generation facilities last year in a bid to boost supply and stave off the return of regular rolling blackouts. 

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa registered 4,178 MW of capacity with an investment cost of R89.7 billion, the most since it started releasing permits in 2018, it said in a statement Wednesday. 

This takes the total number of new facilities to 1,811 over seven years, with the capacity to generate 10,550 MW of power, it said. 

In the final three months of 2024 alone, it registered 1,107 MW of capacity from 143 facilities. Solar photovoltaics is the most favoured technology. 

This week, Eskom reinstituted the most extensive power blackouts in almost a year after the failure of multiple generating units at the state-owned utility that provides more than 80% of the nation’s electricity. 

Loadshedding — as the rotational blackouts that lasted up to 12 hours a day are known locally — can take a significant toll on the economy, cutting as much as R899 million of output daily, according to central bank estimates.