Eskom projected to record annual loss of almost R15 billion - report

Motheo Khoaripe speaks to Harald Winkler, SEI affiliated researcher. 

Listen to the interview in the audio player below. 

Eskom is reportedly set to make a R15 billion loss for the 2024 financial year, according to a report in the Financial Times. 

The power utility's loss is mainly due to its R33 billion diesel bill in order to keep the lights on.

The state owned enterprise has tried hard to reduce its expenditure on diesel, by upping the maintenance of its power stations.

Eskom is however only projecting a loss of only R5bn-R10bn. 

It has however done well in recent months, having avoided implementing loadshedding for more than 100 days.

Speaking to Motheo Khoaripe on The Money Show, Harald Winkler, SEI affiliated researcher at UCT's school of economics says Eskom's diesel bill is the chief reason for the financial loss.

"This is definitely not what we want to be doing. Running these open-cycle gas turbines, that really run this large amount of diesel that are sometimes trucked in."

- Harald Winkler, SEI affiliated researcher - UCT's school of economics

"...because the system has had bad underlying fundamentals. Lack of maintenence and problems with even with renewable plants, but gradually the work that has been done on the energy plan that the president announced in July 2022, has been starting to bear some fruit."

- Harald Winkler, SEI affiliated researcher - UCT's school of economics 

"...with more cost reduction in using less diesel as electricity availability factors creep up, it's possible that it might even push it into a positive balance of R5bn."

- Harald Winkler, SEI affiliated researcher - UCT's school of economics

Scroll to the top to listen to the interview.