South Africa may be heading into a new energy crisis, one that has nothing to do with Eskom.
According to Revov, thousands of degraded batteries imported during the load shedding boom are now entering the market, and consumers are paying the price.
During the height of load shedding, importers flooded the country with batteries to meet unprecedented demand. But when outages eased, much of that stock sat idle in warehouses for months and unlike ordinary goods, batteries degrade when left unused.
“A LiFePO4 battery can lose up to 3% charge per month. After a year in storage, it can arrive flat, unbalanced, and already compromised,” says Lance Dickerson, MD of Revov. “This is a systemic issue that is eroding trust in the renewable energy sector.”
To help consumers and installers navigate the risk, Revov has identified five warning signs that degraded stockpiles are quietly undermining South Africa’s energy resilience.
- Batteries are being sold after sitting idle for months – Batteries are not inert products; they are chemical systems that deteriorate when left uncycled. A battery stored for a year can arrive at installation already compromised, even though it is sold as “new”.
- A growing number of installations are failing under basic load – The cause is often not the inverter or the installer but degraded stock that was never maintained.
- Consumers are paying premium prices for sub-par products – Many of the batteries imported during the boom were never cycled, tested, or conditioned. Consumers end up footing the bill when these units fail months later.
- Tariff hikes are driving households toward backup power but quality is not guaranteed – With electricity tariffs rising and municipal outages worsening, more households are turning to solar and storage. “Energy independence is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity,” says Dickerson. “But independence must be built on quality, not on stockpiled batteries that were never cared for and maintained.”
- Lack of transparency is leaving consumers exposed – Revov says the public should do due diligence and purchase from suppliers who can answer these key questions:
- Are you aware of the production dates?
- Do you have a record of recharge and maintenance histories?
- Do you follow pre-dispatch quality assurance?
- Can you offer local technical support, country-wide?
Without these safeguards, consumers cannot know whether the battery they’re buying is healthy or already degraded.
Revov urges South Africans to choose locally assembled, locally supported batteries backed by nationwide technical teams and transparent warranties.
“The future of energy resilience depends on batteries that are built to last – and supported at home,” Dickerson says.