ESKOM had agreed to a R15 billion loan with the Development Bank of Southern Africa to fund its expansion of generating capacity, the state-owned lender said yesterday.
The approved debt finance will be disbursed over a five year period, the bank said.
Eskom would sign the agreement in Johannesburg today, the bank said.
Eskom is spending R485bn building plants to boost electricity supply in the country and to prevent a repeat of outages that in early 2008 shut many businesses and some gold and platinum mines.
The government has already given the utility a R60bn loan while Eskom this year secured $3.75bn (R25.8bn) from the World Bank to partly finance its Medupi plant.
The largest plants in Eskom's expansion are the Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power plants.
The first unit of Medupi, the most advanced project, is scheduled to start generating power in the fourth quarter of 2012, while a lack of funds means that Kusile is expected to start production at the beginning
of 2015, compared with an earlier forecast of June 2013.
There would not be any more blackouts in South Africa, even though construction of Kusile has been delayed, Eskom chief executive Brian Dames said in
an interview with 702 Talk Radio yesterday.
We will keep the lights on, Dames said. - Bloomberg