Eskom Western Cape confirmed that customers in Mossel Bay, including Brandwacht and surrounding farms, will experience a power outage on Thursday, 22 January. The interruption will run from 9:00 to 11:00 as technical teams conduct emergency repairs on sections of the network affected by the fires.
The power utility said the work is necessary to restore and secure infrastructure damaged during the recent veldfires in the area. Eskom cautioned that electricity supply will be unavailable during the repair window and urged affected customers to treat all electrical connections as live during the outage period.
Eskom: Grid stability and added capacity
While parts of the Western Cape face short-term disruptions, Eskom said the national power system remains stable. The utility reported more than 245 days without implementing load shedding, attributing the performance to its Generation Recovery Plan.
“Eskom’s power system remains stable, continuing to support economic activity in the country,” the utility said.
It added that South Africa returned from the holiday break “to a structurally stronger system entering 2026, than five years ago, with an additional 4400MW of capacity available compared to this time last year”.
According to Eskom, the year-to-date Energy Availability Factor (EAF) has risen to about 64.66%, with the fleet reaching or exceeding 70% EAF on more than 50 occasions.
“The resilience of the power system reflects the major improvements in Eskom’s generation fleet,” the statement said.
Fewer outages and lower diesel costs
Eskom also reported a decline in unplanned outages.
“Between 9 and 15 January 2026, average unplanned outages decreased to 8252MW from last year’s level at this time of 14 783MW,” the utility said.
Planned maintenance increased to an average of 13.89%, up from 11.51% in the previous financial year. Eskom said this reflects “a deliberate strategy to enhance plant reliability” and noted that the benefits are already visible.
Diesel spending has also dropped sharply.
“For a fourth consecutive week, no diesel was used, resulting in zero expenditure over the past four weeks,” Eskom said, adding that spending is now R3.42 billion lower than at the same time last year.
