South Africa’s commercial sector absorbed sharp electricity tariff hikes in 2025, forcing businesses to implement energy-saving measures like power factor correction and improved utility management to keep operational costs manageable.
With tariffs set to rise again in a few months, those businesses that did not find ways to minimise their consumption will find themselves at an increasingly dire disadvantage.
How Did Tariff Increases Affect Your Operations This Year?
Eskom applied a 12.74% average tariff rise starting 1 April 2025, forcing many businesses to look for ways to become more energy efficient or face untenable electricity bills.
Looking ahead, NERSA’s approved increases of 5.36% for 2026/27 and 6.19% for 2027/28 have been scrapped, replaced instead by an 8.8% increase each year.
This continued upward pressure means that utility costs for those who don’t reduce consumption through the implementation of smart energy management solutions will become difficult to maintain.
What Caused The Drop In Load-Shedding Events?
Load shedding reduced considerably in 2025 from prior years, thanks to a combination of better maintenance of Eskom’s assets and lower overall demand due to a major surge in private generation capacity.
The spike in private generation capacity – mostly from huge investments into renewable energy across both the consumer and commercial markets – resulted in a significant drop in demand for Eskom-generated power.
Although Eskom’s generation capacity hasn’t really improved, the reduced strain on the system has meant that loadshedding was curtailed. However, it’s not certain how long the grid will remain stable, as it remains on a knife-edge.
How Can Utility Management Tools Help Mitigate Escalating Bills?
With the grid still under significant pressure for the foreseeable future and electricity costs rising relentlessly, businesses across South Africa are looking to reduce their consumption by any means possible.
For businesses where large-scale investments into private generation remain out of reach, targeted efficiency upgrades have proved to be far more practical to implement.
Remote metering, for example, tracks usage hourly to highlight excess peaks you can adjust, while in-depth utility audits serve to verify invoice accuracy against actual consumption.
Power factor correction via capacitors is another major way to raise efficiency levels, potentially cutting kVA fees and recovering setup costs in six to 24 months.
Contact Energy Management Solutions now to arrange a power factor audit to minimise your utility costs and strengthen your 2026 position.