a new interactive The report from residential solar energy specialist Wetility shows a clear disparity in the reliable supply of electricity across South African municipalities, with some areas experiencing outages of around two hours a day and others more than 18 hours a day.
The data shows that South Africa's energy infrastructure has problems at multiple levels, meaning that solving the main generation issue alone – which Eskom has done with the end of load shedding – does not guarantee stable power supply for consumers and businesses.
“This data makes clear that the conversation about grid reliability cannot happen at a national level alone. Many municipalities are operating under significant pressure – from aging infrastructure and cable theft to revenue collection constraints – and this reality is reflected in the variability we see,” said Vitality's chief commercial officer. Franta Pour.
“This dataset provides a way for municipalities, businesses and families to better understand local conditions and make more informed decisions.”
Vetility used telemetry data from its national network of solar and battery installations to develop a interactive lookup tool Which allows the public to find their municipality and view detailed outage profile. Metrics available for analysis include average outage duration, monthly trends, and how different regions compare.
Although the data is informative, the analysis only includes reports from “over 57” of South Africa's 257 municipalities. Of those represented, the number of households with solar installation in those municipalities has not been disclosed. The definition of an outage is also not clarified, for example, the distinction between a domestic mains trip and a street-wide transformer failure is not specified.
counter story
Yet, the data that Vitality's instrument provides offers a counternarrative regarding South Africa's energy trajectory. The story of national power in 2025 was one of recovery. Eskom went through more than 300 consecutive days without load shedding, generation availability increased and the political conversation began to shift from crisis management to long-term recovery. Vitality's report shows that the recovery has been uneven to the extent that it has become invisible to many households.
The report shows that the average grid outage in South Africa could last 12.1 hours in 2025. But the spread around it is more revealing: the average outage duration ranges from about two hours in the Ilembe district (around Ballito) in KwaZulu-Natal to 18.6 hours in the Amajuba district, also in KZN, where the largest commercial center is Newcastle.
Reading: Theft and power outages hit SA telecom operators hard
At the worst end of the dataset, Amajuba district recorded an average outage duration of 18.6 hours, of which 82.7% were more than eight hours. The Waterberg district in Limpopo – home to Eskom's 4.8GW Medupi power station – recorded an average of 16.4 hours of outages, with about 80% of outages lasting more than eight hours. In short, one of the country's largest generation facilities is located in a district where homes remain without electricity for most of the day.
Metro cities are not untouched by this trend. For example, the city of Tshwane recorded an average of 15.6 hours of outages, with 69.5% of outages lasting more than eight hours.
The potential discrepancy in Vitality's data set is not just due to the fact that South African municipalities are under-represented at 25%. The high cost of solar panels means their distribution is skewed towards higher income areas, meaning the data potentially fails to represent a broad enough sample.
Nevertheless, the insights that Vitality derived from its data can be corroborated by reports from the telecom sector. Earlier this month, TechCentral informed Despite load shedding ending, mobile operators are still being forced to redirect budgeted capital expenditure towards power flexibility for network expansion as power outages remain an everyday occurrence across large parts of South Africa.
Reading: Setback for South Africa's electricity market reform
“Telecom networks require constant electricity to operate and our members now report burning more diesel due to power cuts and vandalism, because wherever there are power cuts, vandalism also increases,” said ACT CEO Nomvuiso Batayi. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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