Diesel spend is down more than 80% this winter compared with the height of the power crisis, and South Africa has now passed 500 days without loadshedding. For businesses that once budgeted for diesel the way they budgeted for rent, the cost collapse is direct relief to the bottom line. For an economy whose daily operations and investment prospects were long shaped by power shortages, the turnaround is a substantial achievement, and the Energy Council of South Africa argues it deserves formal recognition.
The Council has launched the inaugural National Energy Awards to provide exactly that. Developed and hosted by the Council and endorsed by the department of electricity & energy, the platform will honour excellence across categories including Project of the Year, Finance Deal of the Year, Local Industry Development, Technology and Innovation, Community Impact, Strategic Collaboration, Advancing Reform, Research Excellence and Municipal Delivery. The event takes place at the Houghton Hotel in Johannesburg on November 26. Organisations and individuals across the energy value chain, including project developers, financiers, municipalities, research institutions and community organisations, are invited to submit entries by October 23 2026.
James Mackay, the Council’s chief executive, frames the awards as a confidence-building instrument for the market. “Confidence grows when people can see what is working and who is making it happen,” he says. Beyond recognition, the platform aims to make successful delivery more visible so that others can learn from it. South Africa spent years tracking failure stage by stage, he argues; the same discipline should now be applied to tracking success.
The improved outlook did not arrive by accident. It reflects a sustained effort across the energy sector to restore performance and bring new capacity into the system, driven by people willing to solve difficult problems and institutions prepared to work together under extraordinary pressure. The Council wants citizens to see the delivery behind the numbers and understand why the progress gives grounds for confidence about what comes next.
Yet Mackay is equally clear that ending loadshedding was only the essential first step. Building a competitive, affordable and reliable energy system is considerably more complex. Reform must lower the cost of electricity, allow the system to adapt to changing demand, and attract investment without placing further pressure on the state balance sheet. That requires a fundamental change in how the sector operates, and the test is whether reform delivers a better system for the economy.
The pace of change is slowing, and Mackay sees some of this as expected as the sector moves from recovering an existing system to embedding new arrangements. The wider economy also sets the pace. Improved confidence has yet to translate into the new investment and industrialisation needed to drive electricity demand growth. Affordability is a real concern, but price alone does not explain weak demand, and investor uncertainty remains high, with elections and geopolitics top of mind. Ultimately, he notes, the sector cannot outpace the economy.
What changed on the supply side is equally consequential. The country has rapidly moved into an over-supply position, and curtailment is becoming an added cost through deemed energy payments. The crisis-era approach of adding megawatts as quickly as possible was the right response to a shortage, but the next phase demands a demand-led transition focused on optimising the total system. That means better serving existing demand, targeting new demand growth, and ensuring fair competition between Eskom and private generators. Without the right market arrangements, Mackay warns, competition for a limited pool of customers could increase system costs rather than reduce them.
Greater certainty about coal station retirements matters for cost and demand balance as well. Removing high-cost, unreliable capacity that has reached end-of-life will help reduce system costs, and while emissions benefits matter, sound economics and reliable supply must guide implementation. Electricity & energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa announced the development of a 20-year national coal transition programme in parliament in April, and work is underway.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s private renewables industry continues to attract investment, connect new generation and innovate through the transition. Well-executed reform, Mackay argues, will sustainably build on the foundations born out of crisis, creating a more efficient system as economic conditions improve and reform efficiencies begin to deliver system cost benefits. “The challenges should be acknowledged without allowing them to obscure the progress already made,” he says. Organisations helping to power a thriving economy can submit nominations via the National Energy Awards website. The article was sponsored by the Energy Council of South Africa.