South Africa Suffers A Massive Loadshedding Again

Last weekend, most parts of South Africa suddenly lost power. In a statement, South Africa's state-owned power company Eskom said that due to multiple failures at three coal-fired power stations, it had to implement loadshedding. Power will be restored until further notice. During the loadshedding, the stage 6 plan was implemented (the stage 8 is the highest level of loadshedding). It means there will be more than a dozen loadshedding in four days, each time for up to four hours, and loadshedding will be rotated across the country. According to the latest news from Eskom, some generation units have been restored, and the current power outage plan is stage 4.

As some netizens commented, power outage have a serious impact on South Africa's economic development, and many investors withdrew. Therefore, I believe that industry and commerce are more affected by power outages, thus stimulating the market demand for industrial and commercial energy storage.

In early February, South Africa's national energy regulator NERSA approved the electricity price adjustment plan of Eskom. The electricity price will increase by 12.74% from April 2025, and by 5.36% and 6.19% in the 2026/27 and 2027/28 respectively. The electricity price increase plan failed to meet the 36% increase previously proposed by Eskom, and Eskom warned that loadshedding measures may continue to be implemented. Between January 31 and February 2, a "stage 3" loadshedding occurred, breaking Eskom's record of 300 consecutive days of power supply.

South Africa's loadshedding problem mainly caused by the following factors:

1.?????? Aging power generation infrastructure: Many power stations are close to or exceed their design life, resulting in frequent failures and maintenance needs.

2.?????? Poor management and corruption: Eskom has problems in management and maintenance, resulting in unstable power supply.

3.?????? Dependence on coal: South Africa has long relied on coal for power generation, but coal resources are limited and have a large environmental impact.

To address these issues, the South African government is working to increase the proportion of renewable energy and improve the management and operational efficiency of Eskom.

It is foreseeable that South Africa may still experience occasional large-scale loadshedding in the future, but due to the rapid growth of photovoltaic and energy storage installations in South Africa in recent years, which have supplemented the demand gap in the grid power supply, the duration and scope of loadshedding will be less than in the past. After nearly three years of loadshedding, the residential BESS market is close to saturation. This year's loadshedding has limited stimulus to the market growth of residential energy storage.

South Africa has 1.1GW of new solar installation capacity in 2024, down from 2.6GW in 2023. The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association predicts that new installation capacity will reach 2.5-3GW in 2025 and 3.5-4GW in 2026. The main increase will come from C&I and utility BESS projects.

DOWELL ESS entered the South African portable power station market in 2020, providing emergency and UPS power for many households; since last year, it has gradually started discussions with local dealers on C&I BESS projects.