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An Eskom Open-Cycle Gas Turbine generator
As the winter season deepens, Eskom has promised to reduce its reliance on diesel-fueled open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs). According to a statement from 6 June, Eskom has spent R3.76 billion since 1 April 2025, to generate 631.52 GWh of electrical energy.
“This is higher than the 246.91GWh generated during the same period last year,” Eskom said in their statement.
The latest data from the power utility shows that Eskom has spent R73 million on diesel per day on average, with the highest amount being an estimated R274 million spent in just one day on 4 April 2025.
With this large spending on diesel, Eskom promised in their statement to reduce their reliance on OCGTs by returning capacity to the grid after long-term repairs.
Avoiding loadshedding
The power utility reassured the country that the grid remains stable but strained, reiterating their early May 2025 promise of keeping loadshedding at stage 2 at most and at no more than 21 days until the end of winter in August 2025.
However, Eskom’s data shows that the national grid faltered when unplanned outages averaged 15 200 MW over four days between 31 May and 3 June 2025, which exceeded the benchmark set by Eskom of keeping this number between 13 000 MW and 15 000 MW to avoid loadshedding.
Last week, Eskom reported that they spent approximately R220 million on diesel in seven days starting on Saturday, 31 May 2025.
