South Africa’s national utility Eskom has launched Eskom Green, a new renewable energy unit focused on the utility-scale segment and the commercial and industrial (C&I) business.
The move is part of the company’s unbundling strategy launched in 2023.
“Eskom Green has been designed in response to global benchmarking research on over 20 utilities,” the power provider said in a statement. “The insights indicate that the development of renewable energy projects requires agile decision-making, access to diverse sources of capital, partnership-based delivery models, and bankable project structures. These differ materially from Eskom’s legacy vertically integrated generation model.”
The company explained that Eskom Green will be separated from Eskom to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Eskom Holdings with an independent board.
Eskom has recently reached a major operational milestone, recording 365 consecutive days without loadshedding for the first time since 2018. The utility attributes this improvement to better plant performance, stronger operational discipline, and higher system reliability, alongside broader market conditions that include lower demand and rapid growth in rooftop solar PV capacity.
Despite this progress, Eskom’s financial position remains under pressure. The company continues to rely on expensive coal-fired generation and diesel peaking plants, with diesel spending still in the hundreds of millions of rand, although significantly lower than the previous year.
At the same time, South Africa is entering a period of electricity market reform, including plans for a wholesale market that could reshape Eskom’s role. Analysts warn that if regulatory design overly protects Eskom’s coal assets, it may discourage private investment and limit efficiency gains, leaving consumers exposed to higher long-term costs.
Overall, Eskom is showing signs of operational recovery, but its financial sustainability remains closely tied to how quickly it can adapt to a more competitive and renewable-driven electricity market.
