South Africa’s state power company Eskom is set to publish figures showing a $823 million annual loss. Eskom, which recorded a loss of $1.25 billion in 2023, will release the full financial results for the year to March later this year.
The loss is largely a result of Eskom spending $1.8 billion on buying diesel to burn in open-cycle gas turbines to avoid rolling black-outs.
Dan Marokane, Chief Executive of Eskom, said that an end to electricity blackouts could mean that Eskom might be profitable next year. He said: “We saw record use of diesel last year, hence record losses. But we’ve really cut down on diesel, so we should see substantial financial improvement this year. If we maintain our trajectory, there’s no reason we shouldn’t see a profit.”