Power utility Eskom says it is recruiting data scientists as it puts the building blocks in place to pivot AI in its operations.
In what would be a game-changer for energy security in South Africa, the aim is to build a “self-healing” national grid that will tackle its own challenges independent of oversight.
The entity, which is responsible for more than 80% of South Africa’s energy, is seized with about 200 AI pilot projects, as it looks to technology-led solutions for reducing emissions and predictive maintenance of its critical but ageing fleet.
Len de Villiers, Eskom’s chief IT officer, on Monday told big tech investors at the Huawei Industrial Digital and Intelligent Transformation Summit in Barcelona, Spain, that the power utility was moving at pace to modernise and embrace AI.
“What we have realised is that AI is something you deploy from the top of the organisation and is driven by the leadership of the company,” De Villiers said. “It should become a culture in the company. We have a very strong AI directive with a clear mandate,” he said.
“Every person in Eskom will be allowed to experiment with AI within the guardrails that we give them. We are going to make sure that AI is not inhibited but is carefully directed. I am at the moment sitting with 200 AI pilots in our company.”
Areas in which Eskom believes AI can come in handy include sales and customer service. One of the pilots Eskom has embarked on includes a predictive fault-management system.
Every person in Eskom will be allowed to experiment with AI within the guardrails that we give them. We are going to make sure that AI is not inhibited but is carefully directed. I am at the moment sitting with 200 AI pilots in our company.
— Len de Villiers, Eskom’s chief IT officer
Eskom’s intelligent substation project with Huawei is in the development phase.
The Chinese firm, present in South Africa for more than two decades, works with partners to use digital technologies to accurately sense production data in the energy sector and optimise production processes.
De Villiers was appointed to the role in October 2024, bringing more than three decades of experience in IT. He is meant to assist the 102-year-old utility to embrace digitalisation, the use of AI and increased levels in areas of cybersecurity.
David Sun, CEO of Huawei Electric Power’s digitalisation business unit, said centralised network management remains an area for improvement in certain contexts.
“A power provider in South Africa, for example, once faced extended fault localisation durations due to fragmented operations and maintenance systems, potentially impacting real-time grid monitoring and advanced analytical functions,” he told the summit.
“As we build new power systems and connect more renewable energy to the grid, traditional power plants are no longer running at a steady pace. They now have to start and stop frequently and handle deep peak shaving. That puts much higher pressure on safety and maintenance.”
Al’louise Van Deventer, technology and engineering general manager, told the Huawei Electric Power Forum, held on the sidelines of the World Mobile Congress, that Eskom’s modernisation is not just a technology update but rather a “fundamental” shift from a one-way, reactive utility to a two-way ”intelligent energy partner".
“For decades, we operated in silos: the grid team kept the power flowing while the retail team managed the bills and the customer was somewhere else. Modernisation dismantles those walls. It connects the physical world of poles and wires to the digital world of data and choice,” she said.
“AI has become the central brain that orchestrates the entire system. It analyses vast datasets to enable forecasting, anomaly detection and secure grid operations.
“The self-healing grid that Eskom aspires to will allow field teams to move from crisis response to precision maintenance and allow for data-based decision-making in hours, not months.”
This comes as the state-owned entity looks to tap the capital markets again for funding over the next three years, aiming to invest billions of rand a year over the next five years in maintaining and expanding its infrastructure.
The group — which reported its first profit in eight years in 2025, underlining the strides it has made in its operational and financial performance — is looking to invest about R320bn, or R64bn a year, over the next five years to sustain and expand its infrastructure.
About 40% of the planned investment is earmarked to support generation capacity and pipeline, with a further 40% allocated towards the transmission development plan and the balance meant to upgrade its remaining distribution network.
Update: March 3 2026
A previous version of the article said Eskom’s intelligent substation project with Huawei is underdelivering. This is incorrect. We regret the error.
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