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Eskom Want To Push Up Their Prices Even More Than Before

Electricity provider Eskom has been at court fighting with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) over future electricity prices*.

After a lot of back and forth, things have been going Eskom’s way and Nersa has acknowledged that their calculations of some figures they had for Eskom were not spot on.  Nersa will have to go back to the calculator and figure out the proper figures and this could have the effect of enabling Eskom to push for much higher increases in electricity costs.

During the lockdown electricity usage has been down. This has enabled Eskom to avoid rolling blackouts for the past few months. As pressure has mounted on the system (during winter people use more electricity to stay warm) Eskom has started cutting electricity to certain poor paying areas during peak hours in Gauteng. These accomplish the same thing as load shedding but Eskom are calling them something else.

Due to lower usage, however, this means Eskom has not been making as much money as usual. This is especially true due to lower usage by the mining and manufacturing sector. South African’s have seen the same issues int he past with water restrictions. Due to a shortage people are asked to use less. Then when people do use less the supplier doesn’t make as much money and slaps on a tariff or higher rate to try cover their costs.

Eskom are set to increase prices for their services each year going forward according to deals they made with Nersa in the past. Now they may be able to push for as much as a further 50% increase in electricity prices.

 

 

*the fights have been about some accounting stuff but the end result will be that prices will go up.