South Africa has gone 504 consecutive days without loadshedding, according to Eskom, which says its power stations are performing at their best level in six years.

The last rotational power cuts were on 16 May 2025. In its last weekly system update issued at the beginning of October, the state-owned utility said its energy availability factor (EAF) for the financial year to date, which runs from 1 April, had reached 68.11%, up from 62.59% over the same period in 2025. The EAF measures the share of Eskom’s generating capacity that is available to produce power at any given time, and is the standard gauge of the health of its fleet.

Eskom attributed the improvement to fewer breakdowns. Unplanned outages averaged 9 107MW over the period, down from 15 953MW three years ago.

The utility has also cut its reliance on diesel-fired emergency turbines, which are expensive to run and were used heavily to keep the lights on during the worst years of loadshedding. Diesel spending between 1 April and 1 October fell to R1.16 billion from R5.95 billion a year earlier, a decline of 80.49%.

Eskom said it was holding 6 722MW of capacity in cold reserve, meaning energy plants that are switched off because they are not needed.

The utility said it would announce its summer outlook for the power system in the coming weeks.