JOHANNESBURG, GAUTENG — Residents across parts of Johannesburg and surrounding Gauteng communities are currently experiencing targeted Eskom load reduction, with scheduled power interruptions occurring during morning and evening peak demand periods. While the national grid remains stable, the localized outages in the region are primarily driven by network overloads linked to illegal electricity connections rather than a lack of generation capacity.
Addressing the situation, Eskom spokespersons Daphney Mokoena and Stephanie McGuana clarified the distinction between these localized load reductions and national power shortages. According to the utility, the Energy Availability Factor (EAF)—which measures generation capacity to meet demand—is currently performing above 63% year-to-date. This indicates that the national generation fleet is successfully meeting demand and even maintaining excess capacity.
The power interruptions affecting Gauteng are a separate, temporary phenomenon implemented in specific local areas. Eskom explained that the local distribution networks in these targeted zones are overloading during peak hours. When the system overloads, it poses a severe safety risk, potentially causing oil-filled transformers to explode and damaging critical infrastructure. To prevent these hazardous situations and avoid infrastructure damage, the utility temporarily switches off power in the affected localized areas.
Eskom manages the distribution system in these specific affected areas, though municipalities manage their own distribution networks in other regions. When asked if network expansion is part of the utility’s plans to resolve the insufficient distribution capacity, the spokespersons noted that network strengthening is typically incorporated into yearly master plans based on known customer demand.
However, the root cause of the current overloading in these specific communities is the prevalence of illegal connections and meter bypassing. Because these connections are unrecorded, they do not factor into the utility’s master plans for infrastructure upgrades, leading to unexpected and unmanageable network strain.
On a national level, Eskom is making significant progress through its program to eliminate load reduction entirely. Initially, approximately 1.69 million customers out of the utility’s 7.2 million total—roughly 23% of its customer base—were affected by these localized outages. Through targeted interventions, the utility has successfully removed nearly 1 million customers from the load reduction schedule.
Currently, just over 600,000 customers remain affected by load reduction nationwide. The spokespersons highlighted that approximately 60% of these remaining affected customers are located in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), which historically had the highest number of customers impacted by the issue due to the aforementioned illegal connections. Meanwhile, load reduction has been completely eliminated in the Northern Cape, Free State, and Western Cape provinces, marking significant progress in stabilizing local distribution networks across the country.
