Just shy of four months into its current financial year, Eskom has already blown R12.4bn on diesel to run its emergency generation fleet -- nearly half its budget for the entire year.

Eskom is nearly halfway through its diesel budget of R27.9-billion, four months into the 2023/24 financial year, which ends on 31 March 2024.

To stave off higher stages of rolling blackouts between 1 April and 24 July, the power utility spent R12.4-billion of its total diesel budget on its emergency diesel-powered generation fleet to keep the lights on, Eskom confirmed to Daily Maverick this week.

To put this into perspective, it took eight months for Eskom to spend R12-billion on diesel last year, while the same amount has now been blown in less than four. This suggests that Eskom may be on track for another year of overspending on diesel to run its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), which have become a vital lifeline in the face of the loss of generation capacity at Eskom's coal-fired power stations.

In May, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa predicted that a diesel budget of R30-billion would run dry before the financial year is over. But the new electricity minister's projections seem to be at odds with Eskom, which curiously does not foresee it needing more funds from the government to procure more emergency diesel.

South Africa is enduring its worst year for power cuts...