Load shedding severely disrupts the operations of South African ICT companies, including telecommunications operators, increasing their costs and damaging consumer trust in the reliability of their services.

This is a key finding in a new report by communications regulator Icasa, which, as part of a detailed inquiry, surveyed industry players about the impact of Eskom’s inability to maintain a stable supply of electricity.

In a summary of its findings (PDF), Icasa said the inquiry aimed to gather views and inputs from stakeholders regarding the impact of load shedding and to identify potential regulatory relief measures Icasa could consider.

Specific negative effects of the rolling blackouts include frequent downtime leading to loss of productivity and revenue, network congestion when power is restored, increased expenses for backup power systems and fuel, customer frustration due to service disruptions, and decreased customer satisfaction.

The impact of load shedding varied depending on the stage:

At stage 1, the impact was generally low, with minimal disruptions.
Between stages 2 and 4, the impact was moderate, leading to increased reliance on and costs of backup power systems as well as service interruptions due to insufficient battery recharging.
Beyond stage 4, challenges significantly increased, including system failures, severely compromised network availability and quality of service, customer cancellations and downgrades, infrastructure damage, and potential job losses and business closures.

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While telecoms and broadcasting licensees have made significant investments in mitigation strategies, Icasa’s inquiry found that these measures were not fully sufficient to address the overall effects of load shedding. They primarily assisted in mitigating against the impact rather than fully resolving the issues, it found.

Service providers have faced difficulties deploying backup power in some areas due to crime. Also, prolonged and frequent load shedding has caused equipment malfunctions and increased maintenance needs, leading to customer dissatisfaction.

Reputational damage

Even with contingency plans in place, there has been a significant negative impact on customer service, including increased capacity constraints, service interruptions, customer frustration, increased maintenance costs and reputational damage, the regulator said.

It pointed to specific interventions by companies to deal with the problem:

Companies such as Vodacom, Kagiso Media and Vumatel considered solar power investments to be a critical business strategy. Reliance on the grid and diesel generators decreased due to renewable energy sources offered by solar panels.
Companies like Telkom and Vodacom have put energy-saving measures into place. These include optimising energy utilisation in base stations and data centres and deploying more energy-efficient networking equipment.
Companies such as MTN and Telkom installed high-efficiency rectifiers and expanded base station battery capacities to guarantee network resilience.
To ensure broadcasts are still available during blackouts, companies like MultiChoice and eMedia introduced pop-up channels and started re-airing techniques.

However, Icasa found that the mitigation strategies were not sufficient to address the full effects of load shedding, only assisting in mitigating the impact somewhat – especially at higher stages of the rolling blackouts.

Icasa said it is open to investigating amendments to regulations that impede compliance during load shedding and may provide “regulatory forbearance” on a case-by-case basis.

In a separate but related development, Vodacom Group said on Thursday that it now procures 100% of its purchased electricity from renewable sources.

To meet this target, Vodacom has deployed on-site renewable power installations, procured electricity through renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) and bought “renewable energy certificates” (RECs).

“Vodacom’s total energy consumption reached 2 076GWh in the past financial year, of which 1 275GWh was purchased electricity. Of this, 906GWh came from grid electricity, not own generation nor covered by power purchase agreements. To mitigate against the associated environmental impact, Vodacom acquired RECs to cover this grid electricity for its operations across South Africa, Egypt, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho,” it said in a statement.

“Our 100% renewable electricity procurement marks a significant milestone in our ongoing strategy to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in our direct operations by 2035,” said chief technology officer Dejan Kastelic.

In South Africa, Vodacom is working with Eskom to develop a “virtual wheeling” mechanism and, with its subsidiary Mezzanine, is developing the technology platform to enable it.

“Virtual wheeling allows for electricity supply to our local operations to originate from renewable independent power producers, such as wind and solar farms. Vodacom South Africa will be the first to procure renewable electricity through virtual wheeling in the last quarter of 2025,” it said.

While Vodacom said its primary energy source is still grid-supplied electricity, there is limited grid availability in certain countries, resulting in reliance on diesel generators and batteries for power.

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“In the short term, Vodacom prioritises batteries over diesel generators as these impede its decarbonisation efforts. Longer term, the network operator is exploring diesel alternatives, including connecting off-grid sites to the grid, deploying wind and solar where suitable, and exploring newer technologies, including microturbines and hydrogen fuel cells.” – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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