South Africa will require R500-billion in private investment to end power cuts that are stalling economic growth by the start of 2025, said Peter Attard Montalto, Intellidex’s head of capital markets research.

The money is needed to construct 15 gigawatts of generation capacity and five gigawatts of battery storage, he said, adding that the requirement is unlikely to be met within such a tight time-frame.

South Africa is facing its worst-year yet of power cuts as Eskom imposes rolling blackouts, known locally as load-shedding, because its poorly maintained, coal-fired plants keep breaking down. The country has been plagued by outages since 2008.

“Ending load-shedding by end-2024 is possible, but a stretch,” Montalto said in a response to questions. It would require that all efforts to end the crisis and introduce energy reforms “would have to go like clockwork,” he said.

The country will need to invest an additional R175-billion in expanding its power grid over the next decade, Montalto said in a presentation to the Presidential Climate Change Coordinating Commission on Thursday.