{"id":872751,"date":"2026-08-31T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=872751"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:45:24","slug":"eskom-records-over-r30-billion-in-profit-charging-customers-more-as-sales-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/872751\/eskom-records-over-r30-billion-in-profit-charging-customers-more-as-sales-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom records over R30 billion in profit, charging customers more as sales decline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom achieved roughly R30.35 billion in profit for the 2026 financial year, more than doubling its R14 billion profit the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise in revenue and profits came despite lower sales, suggesting that fewer customers paid more, creating the inverse trendlines for sales and revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom noted that a 12.74% tariff increase was partly offset by a 6.2% decline in sales for the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledging the discrepancy, Eskom said that this path is unsustainable and that its future revenue growth requires demand retention and diversification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Tariff increases alone cannot secure Eskom\u2019s future,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this end, the group said that its improved generation availability has provided an opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in over a decade, improved generation availability has created an estimated 2\u20133GW surplus capacity, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This positions the group to attract new demand rather than ration it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom also noted that the increase in its profitability was also distorted by significant fuel levy refunds in FY2025, which amounted to R14.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it said its underlying costs fell by R11.5 billion when excluding the fuel levy impact, enabled by more reliable, cheaper generation displacing OCGTs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state-owned company is the sole generator and distributor for South Africa’s national grid, and has faced several challenges in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has historically struggled to meet the country’s energy demands adequately, leading to load shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has not experienced load shedding for over a year, which Eskom has attributed to improved generation capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its latest financial results, the energy supplier saw its revenue rise to R355 billion\u2014roughly R14 billion higher than in 2025\u2014with EBITDA rising to R108.6 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The improvements in both revenue and profit have come in the wake of improved efficiency from the company, which has increased its electricity availability factor (EAF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EAF is a key metric of Eskom’s efficiency in producing electricity, with a higher score indicating fewer breakdowns or unplanned maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its EAF for 2026 was 65.16%, approximately five percentage points higher than the previous year; however, this was below Eskom’s target for the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The energy supplier had set a target of 70%, and said it did not achieve this due to a high number of unplanned losses at several power stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Plant reliability and sustainability are being improved through targeted initiatives to reduce unit trips, enhance outage planning and execution, execute key strategic projects, and support interventions focused on people, plant and process,” Eskom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Eskom saw its revenue and profits increase, its total electricity sales volume decreased by approximately 11 terawatt-hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company attributed this decrease to unplanned shutdowns and closures in South Africa’s mining industry, as well as an increase in solar installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Eskom is implementing a range of initiatives to address the decline in sales and support the growth of electricity demand,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these initiatives is to introduce reduced prices for specific mining and refining operations, which the company said would not affect broader electricity tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Changes are coming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Plans have been proposed to unbundle Eskom, splitting the energy supplier into three distinct companies across different parts of the national grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would include establishing an independent transmission system operator (TSO), as well as separate companies for generation and distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom has opposed the proposed changes several times since their announcement, but recently showed support for them in a joint statement with Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the company has supported the changes, it emphasised that they would need to be made in fiscally responsible ways, to protect Eskom’s current investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is important that the implementation process appropriately addresses lender requirements, financing arrangements and contractual obligations,” it said in its financial results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Addressing municipal arrear debt and the development of an appropriate legislative and regulatory framework are key aspects in developing a sustainable implementation pathway for a fully independent transmission system operator.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal arrears have been an issue for the energy supplier, which saw its gross debt from this category rise by R17 billion in the 2026 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, municipal debt was R94.6 billion, and rose to R111.6 billion in 2026, which the company said has put pressure on its financial performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Total gross municipal arrear debt escalated significantly by R17.0 billion to R111.6 billion at year’s end and continues to increase, negatively affecting the financial sustainability of the group,” Eskom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the largest debtors to Eskom was Johannesburg, which had accumulated billions in debt from unpaid bulk electricity purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 21 August 2026, the city settled its debts with the energy provider, paying R5.25 billion in overdue electricity payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before this, Eskom had threatened legal action and potential power interruptions to compel the city to repay its debts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom more than doubled its profits for 2026 and saw its revenue increase despite a decline in electricity sales volumes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":833368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2094345873530474539","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2191736768313389","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17901011859356527","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164,1996,26005],"class_list":["post-872751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-johannesburg","tag-tso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872751"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872800,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872751\/revisions\/872800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}