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South Africa's electricity, 1882 to 2030

From one seller to a market.

For a century, South African electricity had one seller. In four years the law, the grid and the buyers have all changed, and the biggest change is still ahead: a wholesale market where hundreds of parties trade every hour.

Read the history See what's coming

Three shapes of the same grid.

The wires have changed less than the arrangement on top of them. Who may sell, and to whom, is what is being rebuilt.

  1. 1923 to 2010

    One utility does everything.

    ESCOM, then Eskom Generate Transmit Distribute Customers Municipalities resell in their own areas

    The state's utility builds the grid around large coal stations and sells to almost everyone, directly or through municipalities.

  2. 2011 to 2021

    Many generators, one buyer.

    Private IPPs Eskom the only buyer Customers

    Private wind and solar arrive through government procurement, on 20-year contracts with a single buyer. Customers still have one supplier.

  3. 2022 onward

    Many sellers, many buyers.

    SAWEM, 2027 Eskom and municipal networks, each charging once

    Generators of any size register and sell to traders or straight to buyers, wheeled over both networks. The wholesale market adds a daily price from 2027.

  • About 90% of the country's electricity came from Eskom in 2019.

  • 20.1 GW of private generation was registered with NERSA by June 2026, across 2,619 facilities.

  • Rooftop solar has passed 9 GW, and private supply meets about a fifth of demand.

  • Eskom sold 178 TWh in its 2026 year, its lowest volume in eighteen years.

A century in dates.

From the diamond fields to the first draft of a wholesale market.

1882 to 1922

The mines light up.

Electricity arrives with diamonds and gold. Towns and mining companies build their own plants, and a private company powers the Rand.

  1. Kimberley switches on electric street lights, the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to do so.

  2. Gold is found on the Witwatersrand, and the mines drive the demand for power.

  3. The Victoria Falls Power Company is formed to bring electricity to the Rand's gold mines. As the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company, it ends up powering them from coal stations on the Rand.

  4. The Electricity Act creates two bodies: a commission to supply electricity nationally, and a board to regulate its cost.

1923 to 1993

One utility for the country.

The state's Electricity Supply Commission builds the national grid around large coal stations and becomes, for most customers, the only seller there is.

  1. ESCOM, the Electricity Supply Commission, is established, with engineer Hendrik van der Bijl as its first chairman.

  2. ESCOM buys the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company for £14.5 million, taking over its power stations and about 2,100 km of transmission lines.

  3. Coal-fired stations on the Highveld coalfields become the backbone of the national grid.

  4. Koeberg unit 1, near Cape Town, enters commercial operation, the first unit of Africa's only nuclear power station. Unit 2 follows in November 1985.

  5. ESCOM and its Afrikaans name, EVKOM, are combined into one: Eskom.

1994 to 2006

Power for all, competition on paper.

Democracy brings an electrification drive that connects millions of homes. Policy plans for competition and private investment; the new plants are not built.

  1. About half of South African households have electricity. Over the next twenty years more than 5.8 million households are connected, and the share without power falls to 14%.

  2. The White Paper on Energy Policy sets the post-apartheid course: wider access, better governance and security through a diverse supply.

  3. Cabinet decides to split off transmission and sell 30% of Eskom's generation, with new capacity to come from private investors. None of it happens.

  4. Eskom becomes a public company, Eskom Holdings, still wholly owned by the state.

  5. NERSA, the National Energy Regulator, is established, and the Electricity Regulation Act sets the licensing rules the industry still runs on.

  6. With demand rising and little new capacity, the reserve margin falls from 27% to 5%.

2007 to 2021

Load shedding, and the first private power.

Demand catches up with supply. Rolling blackouts begin, two coal megastations run years late, and the state starts buying wind and solar from private producers.

  1. The first national load shedding. In January 2008 the government declares a national power emergency.

  2. Medupi and Kusile, 4,800 MW coal stations, are approved and started. Kusile's last unit enters commercial operation only in September 2025.

  3. The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme launches. The first 28 preferred bidders are announced in December, at COP17 in Durban.

  4. The carbon tax starts, at R120 a tonne of CO₂e.

  5. A government roadmap sets out splitting Eskom into separate generation, transmission and distribution companies.

  6. Generators of up to 100 MW no longer need a licence, only registration with NERSA. The threshold had been 1 MW.

2022 to 2026

The rewiring.

The licensing cap comes off, the law is rewritten for a market, and private generation registers faster than ever. Buyers now wheel power for price and carbon, not only for security.

  1. The licensing cap is removed entirely: generation of any size registers with NERSA instead of applying for a licence.

  2. The worst year for load shedding on record, with power cuts on more than 330 days.

  3. The National Transmission Company South Africa is licensed, takes over Eskom's contracts with private producers and starts trading in July 2024.

  4. The last load shedding of the crisis. Eskom now carries a surplus of 2 to 3 GW.

  5. The Electricity Regulation Amendment Act comes into force, opening the way to a competitive market with an independent Transmission System Operator by 2029.

  6. NERSA approves the wheeling rules: network access that is non-discriminatory and cost-reflective, across Eskom's and the municipalities' networks.

  7. Eskom's tariff plan separates generation, network and retail charges.

  8. NERSA registers 7,464 MW of private generation, the most in any year.

  9. Phase two of the carbon tax begins, at R308 a tonne.

  10. The NTCSA publishes Market Code revision 2.3, the rulebook for the wholesale market.

  11. NERSA consults on draft trading rules. Private generation registered with NERSA reaches 20.1 GW.

Where things stand, October 2026

The changes coming.

Some of these are law, some are scheduled and some are still drafts. Each says which, because the difference matters when you sign a ten-year contract.

  1. From April 2027

    The wholesale market opens.

    SAWEM brings day-ahead and intraday auctions, reserves and balancing, with Balance Responsible Parties from 10 MW. Outside participants join in a limited phase from the second quarter of 2027, with full competition towards 2030. The opening has already slipped twice.

    What it changes: generators and traders bid every day before 10:00 SAST, and every hour's deviation from schedule is settled as imbalance.

    Scheduled

  2. Next 18 months, and by 2029

    Eskom comes apart.

    Eskom's unbundling is to be sequenced over the coming eighteen months, and the amended Act requires an independent Transmission System Operator by 2029.

    What it changes: generation, the grid and retail become separate counterparties, each with its own charges and its own invoices.

    Law

  3. In four phases

    Customers choose their supplier.

    NERSA's draft trading rules make customers from 1 MVA contestable, cover generators above 100 kW and Virtual Wheeling above 100 kVA, and open retail competition in four phases, with switching between suppliers only from the third.

    What it changes: large buyers gain several suppliers, and each switch has to be metered, settled and billed.

    Draft

  4. For five years

    Trading platforms get rules.

    NERSA's draft framework for trading platforms would bar automated trading for five years.

    What it changes: trades need a person to confirm them, so the evidence of who approved what becomes part of the record.

    Draft

  5. To 2030

    Carbon costs more every year.

    The carbon tax rises on a legislated path from R308 a tonne in 2026 to R462 in 2030, with the basic allowance held at 60%. A R640 penalty above a carbon budget is enacted but not yet switched on. The EU's border carbon tax from 2026 and the UK's from 2027 both credit carbon tax paid at home.

    What it changes: an emitter's July return becomes evidence that also counts against a border tax abroad.

    Law

  6. Every April

    Grid power keeps getting dearer.

    Eskom's tariffs rose 8.76% in April 2026 after a court-ordered redetermination, and 8.83% is projected for 2027.

    What it changes: the comparison every buyer makes, contract against grid, moves each year, so landed cost has to be recalculated on effective-dated rates.

    2026 decided, 2027 projected

  7. Already here

    The grid becomes the constraint.

    With supply plentiful, the limit is the network. Curtailment events now exceed a hundred a year, and the industry's claims backlog is near R1.5bn.

    What it changes: lost energy has to be proved interval by interval before anyone is paid for it.

    Now

Every reform multiplies the counterparties.

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Generators from 100 kW, buyers from 1 MVA, traders between them, two networks each charging once, a wholesale market with daily credit cover, and a carbon return that also counts abroad. That is the work Webill Green was built for. The Webill edge