Barely on the road to recovery from load shedding, South African businesses face an invisible enemy: unplanned grid outages. Discover the stark findings of the Wetility 2025 Energy Resilience Report, revealing the heavy toll of the electricity crisis on business operations. Read more for insights and solutions in our latest report.
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In a country where power struggles have become a way of life, Wetility has unveiled the harsh reality about South Africa's electricity crisis through its 2025 Energy Resilience Report.
With findings drawn from over 57 municipalities, the report painted a grim picture of a nation grappling not just with load shedding, but with a widespread and untreated distribution network that continues to fail its citizens and businesses alike.
The report detailed a staggering 91,934 unplanned outages across South Africa last year, with an average duration of 12.1 hours.
More than half of these outages lasted longer than eight hours, translating to a potential of up to 132 hours of unplanned downtime each month for businesses lacking backup power.
This presents a serious challenge, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty that companies must navigate.
While there's an encouraging trend in Eskom's performance, boasting over 300 consecutive days without load shedding as of March 2026, the lived experience of everyday South Africans contradicts this optimistic narrative.
The Wetility data further revealed that, despite improved generation stability, the reliability of electricity delivery remains fraught with issues.
“We are now seeing two parallel trends. One where generation is improving and another where there are many localised failures,” Ikenna Oguguo, Group President of Wetility said.
South Africans are experiencing an increasing number of outages that disrupt businesses and households alike.
The data indicated households faced an average of 6 to 9 grid outages monthly in 2025, peaking at a rate of over eight outages in February, coinciding with a period of both load shedding and additional outages.
According to the report, the blame seems to lie not with power generation, which has stabilised, but rather with South Africa's ageing and overstrained distribution network.
Issues such as municipal maintenance backlogs, cable theft, and equipment failures are at the forefront of these persistent outages.
With an average of over 58% of outages lasting longer than eight hours, businesses must grapple not only with the lights going out unpredictably but also with the financial implications of prolonged downtimes.
Recognising these challenges, Oguguo emphasised the need for businesses and households to rethink their energy strategies.
“What we have been solving for is the tension between cost and resilience,” he stated, pointing to the growing demand for solar and battery systems that continue to thrive despite a reduction in load shedding.
Power reliability, it seems, has transitioned from a scheduled inconvenience to an enduring unpredictability that necessitates action.
In regions like Gauteng, where outages lasted an average of 14 hours, the implications for businesses could be disastrous compared to the Eastern Cape, where the figure stood at a comparatively lesser 6.6 hours.
“A household in Gauteng faces a fundamentally different energy reality than one in the Eastern Cape,” Oguguo added,
As the nation strives towards energy resilience, it highlights the pressing need for structural reforms within the distribution network, alongside the advantages of adopting self-sufficient solar and battery solutions.
Consumers are no longer contemplating whether to invest in solar, they are now weighing how large a system they need to insulate themselves against unpredictable outages.
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