Eskom's Unplanned Outages Fall 28% Year on Year as Availability Reaches 68.2%

Eskom's energy availability factor for 1 April to 15 October 2026 was 68.2%, against 62.63% in the same period last year, according to its 16 October update. That is 5.57 percentage points higher, and the best year-to-date figure in six years.

Unplanned outages averaged 7,707 MW in the week to 15 October, down from 10,646 MW a year earlier. By our calculation that is 2,939 MW, or 27.6%, lower. Diesel spending on open-cycle turbines is down R4.87 billion to R1.18 billion for the year to date.

Koeberg Unit 1 tripped on 16 October during testing linked to Unit 2's planned outage. Eskom said there were no safety concerns and that supply was not affected.

Our analysis breaks down the planned and unplanned figures and the diesel numbers.