South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom is exploring opportunities to support Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence (AI) development, and data centres to help its future growth, according to Dan Marokane, group CEO.

Speaking at the BizNews Conference earlier this year, Marokane noted that data centres and Bitcoin mining were driving electricity demand in the United States, My Broadband reported on June 29.

Meanwhile, Eskom was facing increased competition from independent renewable power producers in South Africa. Marokane explained that as more households and businesses generated their own renewable energy, Eskom might have to reduce output from its own plants.

While additional generation helps ease crippling power outages, locally called load shedding, that have plagued South Africa’s economy for years, it poses a challenge for Eskom’s long-term survival. The utility recorded a 4% decline in electricity sales last year and expects this trend to continue for the next three to five years.

At the same time, Eskom continues to struggle with mounting debts. The utility’s latest results show it owes ZAR403bn ($22.7bn) in loans and debt securities, while municipal debt owed to Eskom is around ZAR90 billion ($5.1bn). Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa warned that this could rise to ZAR3.1 trillion ($174.5bn) by 2050.

“The business has to reinvent itself and use part of this baseload that we have in a manner that can help it deal with the remainder of its debt pile that is sitting around our necks,” Marokane said as cited by My Broadband.

“We have to be looking at alternatives, and there are exciting opportunities around AI and data centres, but also within the space of Bitcoin,” he stated.

Bitcoin mining is energy-intensive by design. It involves solving complex mathematical problems to validate new transactions and protect the blockchain’s distributed ledger from tampering. Miners compete to solve each block, earning a “block reward” of new bitcoin, plus smaller transaction fees when users send funds over the network. A new block is created about every 10 minutes, and rewards will stop once 21mn bitcoins exist. This system, called proof-of-work, is highly energy-intensive. Other systems, like Ethereum’s proof-of-stake, use less power, but Bitcoin supporters say proof-of-work offers the best security.

Electricity is the biggest operational cost for crypto miners, so cheap power is vital. In the US, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) says Texas has the fastest-growing electricity demand, driven by data centres and crypto mining. These large facilities can use as much power as a medium-sized power plant and sometimes volunteer to reduce consumption during peak periods, similarly to Eskom’s load curtailment programme for large users during high demand period.

According to My Broadband, Texans were outraged when Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms was paid $32mn for reducing power use during a heatwave in 2023 when residents were asked not to use air conditioning.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, the national grid remains under pressure. Although Eskom is planning for a future with lower grid demand, it currently faces the risk of having to return to load shedding. Between 13 and 19 June 2025, the utility reported average unplanned outages of 15,076 MW, above the 15,000 MW level that could trigger at least 21 days of stage 2 load shedding during winter. This means households and businesses may again begin to experience power outages of two to four hours daily.