-
Eskom
Eskom has issued a correction to its 18 July weekly Power Alert statement, which incorrectly showed that the power utility had spent an additional R343 million on diesel in one week. After SABC News’ data analysis found the error in the reported diesel spend, Eskom told SABC News that they will correct the error in their upcoming Power Alert on 25 July.
Eskom reportedly spent R5.897 billion on diesel to generate 941 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy between 1 April 2025 and 17 July 2025. This amounts to an exorbitant R637 million spent in seven days between 11-17 July. SABC News found that Eskom would have paid R12 900 per megawatt hour (MWh) to generate electricity from diesel, which is more than double the usual cost of R6 000 per MWh.
“The actual diesel spend should have been R5.554 billion, not R5.897 billion,” Eskom told SABC News, saying the error came from their R5 897 cost per MWh being mistakenly captured as the diesel spend.
“This resulted in an inadvertent overstatement of the diesel spend, which we had intended to correct in this week’s Power Alert.”
The error added R343 million to the total diesel spend.
R300 million spent on diesel per week
The corrected figure of R5.554 billion spent on diesel means that the power utility has spent on average R300 million per week to generate electricity from diesel-fueled open cycle gas generators (OCGT). These generators are used for emergencies to augment coal-fired power stations when electricity demand is too high.
This expensive method of generating electricity costs R6 000 per MWh, which is more than 10 times the cost it takes for Eskom to generate electricity with coal.
Infographic
