Two of South Africa’s major labour unions have accepted state power utility Eskom’s 7% wage increase offer, while a third has rejected it and declared a deadlock, demanding a higher raise, union representatives said on Thursday. Eskom began pay talks last year with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Solidarity, with several rounds of negotiations continuing until this month.
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South Africa’s power grid is entering a high-risk phase as the rapid rise of rooftop solar and renewable energy is starting to outpace the system’s original design capacity. The transition to cleaner energy is no longer just an opportunity but also represents a technical balancing act that could determine grid stability in the years ahead, highlights global energy technology company Schneider Electric Middle East and Africa power and grid segment VP Taru Madangombe.
The adoption of smart grid technologies is crucial for the future of South Africa’s power grid and its efficiency. Intelligence is key and smart grids are an enabler of intelligence, highlights University of Pretoria Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering Department head Professor Raj Naidoo. A significant portion of the country’s transmission and distribution losses arise from undetected faults, unmetered consumption, ageing assets operating beyond their design envelope and the absence of real-time situational awareness.
Decentralised microgrids are proving critical to accelerating electrification, easing energy constraints and improving resilience across South Africa, highlights South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) renewable energy manager Dr Karen Surridge. Microgrids are increasingly being positioned as a core component of the solution to the country’s energy access challenges, particularly in remote, underserved and fast-growing areas where conventional infrastructure struggles to keep pace. Surridge stressed that decentralised systems are not only expedient but also a necessary complement to broader electrification efforts.
South Africa’s cable industry has the capacity and expertise to support grid optimisation, but only if it is protected against substandard imports that are undermining the safety and performance of industrial, domestic and renewable-energy installations, notes wire and electric cable manufacturer South Ocean Electric Wire (SOEW) CEO Andre Smith. He says the grid faces growing demand from renewable-energy integration, industrial recovery and electrification goals, with utilities, such as State-owned power utility Eskom and municipalities, increasingly relying on innovative reconductoring and uprating solutions to unlock additional capacity on existing corridors without lengthy environmental approvals or new tower construction.
South Africa’s electricity reform momentum risks stalling unless transmission infrastructure is urgently expanded, with grid capacity, rather than generation investment, now the primary constraint to unlocking private investments and ensuring energy security, says renewable-energy company Discovery Green executive director and actuarial research head Dan Ginsberg. He argues that, in addition to continued policy reform, the immediate priority should be focused on the physical power grid build-out at scale. South Africa’s energy transition is increasingly shaped by a structural imbalance, with strong private-sector appetite to build generation capacity, but insufficient transmission capacity to connect new projects.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has confirmed that it received an application from Eskom on April 10 in relation to a 62c/kWh tariff offer for the ferrochrome sector and has indicated that the Energy Regulator is aiming to reach a decision by the end of June. Nersa’s electricity subcommittee is scheduled to approve, on April 17, the publication of a consultation paper on the amendment to the Negotiated Pricing Agreements with the Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture and Samancor Chrome ferrochrome smelters to provide the tariff relief.
In this opinion article on the latest draft trading rules released by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, renewable energy entrepreneur Frank Spencer warns that the proposed rules impose volume caps, broad non-bypassable charges, and structural barriers that will constrain generators and traders alike for years.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the war in the Middle East, which has precipitated an energy crisis similar in scale to the 1970s oil crisis, should spur countries to accelerate their adoption of renewable energy to strengthen their resilience to energy shocks. Speaking at the release of the latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said the diversification of energy sources to protect economies from price hikes and supply disruptions was one of the key lessons from the 1974 crisis.
Solar energy company Wetility has released a free-to-use interactive lookup tool that allows anyone to search their municipality and view a detailed electricity outage profile, including average duration, monthly trends and how their area compares with the national average. South African households experienced an average of six to nine grid outages a month in 2025 and more than 91 000 unique outages were recorded during the year, the company says.
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