How Eskom plans to address its revenue gap

ESKOM was in talks with Treasury on how it would close the revenue gap due to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) only allowing tariff increases well below its three-year request.

- HELMO PREUSS

In the six months ended September 2024, a period in which there was no national load shedding, Eskom’s revenue rose by 15.8% year-on-year to R183.71 billion. This meant its profit before tax grew more than tenfold to R23.03bn from only R2.24bn in the same period in 2023 when load shedding was at its worst.

In the 2023/4 financial year, which is the latest available annual report, although Eskom’s 2024/5 financial year ended in March 2025, Eskom!s revenue grew by 14% to R295.8bn due to an 18.7% tariff increase, while sales fell by 3%.

Statistics South Africa, in its December 2024 electricity report, noted that total South African electricity consumption grew by 3.3% in 2024 to 212 952 gigawatt-hours (GWh), but this was still 11.7% below the record 241 170 GWh used in 2017.