Eskom grew its net profit to R12.8-billion in the six months to end of September, chief financial officer Paul O’Flaherty said on Wednesday.
The power utility grew revenue by R63.9-billion which was mainly driven by the 25.8% tariff increase granted by the National Energy Regulator South Africa effective from April this year.
O’Flaherty said Eskom was a seasonal business which generally made most of its profit in the first six months of its financial year due to the winter increase in demand for electricity.
“We expect to break even for the second six months,” he said.
All the financial surpluses Eskom made would be reinvested in its massive capital expansion plan and to service its debt.
CEO Brian Dames said Eskom had embarked on obtaining funding of R300-billion to pay for the capital expansion, and had so far secured 74% of the funding required.
Dames warned that electricity supply would continue to be critical for the next two years.
“We are now in maintenance season and we normally take advantage of low demand [to do maintenance] but these days South Africans all have air conditioners so demand is not that low any more,” he said.
Eskom still had a critical maintenance backlog and this could not be put off for much longer.
“We are concerned about summer and are urging all our customers to work with us and save electricity,” Dames said. — Sapa