How did Eskom return to profitability after years of load shedding?

For years, Eskom symbolised South Africa’s economic fragility. Chronic power cuts, ballooning debt, and collapsing plant performance turned the utility into a drag on growth and investor confidence. 

In 2025, that narrative began to shift. Eskom supplied electricity for 231 consecutive days without load shedding and now expects to post about 16 billion rand in net profit by the end of its financial year in March 2026.

The turnaround did not come from new power stations or sweeping structural reform. It came from operational discipline.

The most important change was maintenance. Eskom increased planned maintenance across its coal fleet, accepting short-term pressure to stabilise long-term output. 

That decision raised the energy availability factor to 69.1% in December 2025, up from 56.6% a year earlier. Simply put, more of Eskom’s existing power plants were working more often.

This improvement reduced the need for emergency diesel generation, one of the utility’s most expensive stopgaps during the worst years of load shedding. Cutting diesel burn lowered operating costs materially and restored predictability to the system. In 2025, Eskom reported only 26 hours of planned power cuts, concentrated in April and May.

Financial performance followed operational stability. In the first half of the financial year, Eskom posted 24.3 billion rand in net profit, supported by lower finance costs and reduced debt levels. 

Years of state support, debt restructuring, and tighter cost controls finally began to show through in the income statement. Average electricity tariff increases also played a role, improving revenue without requiring higher volumes.

Just as important was governance focus. Eskom implemented an operational recovery plan that narrowed priorities to plant performance, cost containment, and execution. The aim was not to solve every structural problem at once, but to stabilise the core function: generating and delivering power reliably.

The impact went beyond Eskom’s balance sheet. In 2024, improved power stability contributed to South Africa’s first sovereign credit rating upgrade in two decades, from BB- to BB. For investors, Eskom shifted from being a constant risk factor to a conditional positive signal.

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That does not mean the crisis is fully resolved. Eskom’s 231-day stretch without load shedding still fell short of the 282-day run recorded in 2024, and the generation fleet remains old and vulnerable. Structural reforms, transmission expansion, and private generation remain essential to long-term energy security.

But the lesson from Eskom’s return to profitability is clear. Stability did not arrive through grand announcements or rapid expansion. It came through maintenance, cost discipline, and operational realism. By fixing what it already had, Eskom reduced outages, cut expenses, and rebuilt credibility.

For South Africa’s economy, that matters. Reliable electricity underpins industrial output, investment decisions, and household confidence. Eskom’s recovery does not end the power debate, but it changes its terms. The utility is no longer only a liability. For the first time in years, it is showing what functional recovery looks like.