Eskom earned less revenue than anticipated as a result of not recovering electricity payments, and spent more money, especially on diesel, to run its emergency generation fleet because there were more days of blackouts.

Eskom made a whopping R23.9-billion financial loss during the year ending March 2023, which marks the largest in its 100-year operational history.

The figure widened by two times since the previous year, when the power utility recorded a R11.9-billion loss.

Eskom unveiled its financial results on Tuesday, 31 October. They have been submitted late to Parliament, with the utility missing the 30 September submission deadline.

Its loss for the year comes despite a 9.61% electricity tariff increase and a R21.9-billion bailout from National Treasury. These circumstances would, in theory, help Eskom to increase its revenue or money generation potential. And it did, since its revenue increased by 5% to R259.5-billion.

However, Eskom earned less revenue than anticipated as a result of not recovering electricity payments, and spent more money, especially on diesel. It spent R29.7-billion on diesel that is used to run its emergency generation fleet (open-cycle gas turbines) and generate power. This was more than double the previous financial year's spend.

Eskom had to rely on open-cycle gas turbines because 2023 is shaping up to be the worst year for power disruptions. According to Eskom acting CEO Calib Cassim, there have been 280 days of blackouts in 2023, which...