The National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) has confirmed what it describes as a “temporary bottleneck” in curtailment payments to independent power producers (IPPs), with about R2-billion of such compensation claims currently undergoing “verification and settlement”.
This confirmation came only days after EE Business Intelligence MD and energy analyst Chris Yelland wrote that renewables IPPs had experienced a sharp increase in curtailment instructions from Eskom in 2026 and were growing increasingly concerned about a lack of transparency in the methodology being used, as well as delayed reimbursements.
Curtailment is a normal part of managing an electricity system, occurring when the system operator instructs generators to temporarily reduce output to maintain the safe and reliable operation of the national grid.
This is driven either by network constraints that limit power transmission, or during periods where total electricity supply exceeds demand.
Where renewables capacity has been procured through a public procurement process and Eskom is the single buyer, the power purchase agreements (PPAs) stipulate that Eskom must reimburse IPPs for the revenue lost when their output is curtailed.
