The Shoprite Group has revealed that the company spent R754 million on diesel to power generators for stores across South Africa in the 2023/24 financial year.

This is according to the retailer’s operational update for the year ended June 30, 2024. It is a marked improvement compared to the R1.3 billion it spent in 2022/23 financial year.

According to the report, the Group spent R500 million for the first half period and R254 million for the second half period on diesel for power generators.

The retailer spent significantly less on diesel in the final half of the year as the grid has performed significantly better in the last four months. South Africa has not had load shedding for over 120 days.

The company said that the drop in diesel costs should be considered in light of a “commensurate” rise in electricity usage.

“As a result, we anticipate the percentage increase in the Group’s water and electricity expense for the year should be mid to low single digits,” the Group said.

The R750 million cost of diesel to power generators during load shedding is much lower than what the company reported for the previous year.

In its operational update for the year ended July 2, 2023, the Group said that the cost of diesel to power generators during load shedding for South African stores amounted to R1.3 billion.

The Group said: “It is important to note that this cost became significant at higher stages of load shedding which occurred from September 2022.”

Load shedding

Shoprite’s announcement of lowered costs diesel cost to power generators comes as Eskom marks more than four months of no load shedding.

On July 26, 2024, South Africa’s power generator marked 121 days of no load shedding.

“Eskom is pleased to announce the ongoing suspension of load shedding, marking four months (121 consecutive days) of uninterrupted power supply since 26 March 2024, including 87 days of constant supply throughout the winter period,” Eskom said.

The last time there was such an extended period of suspended load shedding was over four years ago, between March 16, 2020 and July 9, 2020, when load shedding was suspended for 116 days.

At the time, Eskom also revealed that they achieved 35,000MW of available capacity, with an evening peak demand of 30,740MW, a level of available capacity that has not been seen since July 16, 2018.

This level of available capacity can be attributed to reduced unplanned outages.

IOL Business