South Africans who have this year already endured multiple interest rate increases, persistent high inflation for essentials such as food and fuel, must now brace themselves for another shock when next year’s electricity tariff increase is announced on Wednesday.
The National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) is expected to announce a “draft” decision on Eskom’s revenue application for the next two years at an energy regulator meeting.
Energy regulator Nersa will make its decision on power utility Eskom’s 32% electricity tariff application this week.
The regulator has published its meeting scheduled for the week ahead, noting that the decision for Eskom’s fifth Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD5) revenue application for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years will be announced on Wednesday, 14 December.
Also on the agenda is Nersa’s decision on Eskom’s fourth Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD4) Regulatory Clearing Account (RCA) application for the 2020/21 financial year.
The decision on Eskom’s application was expected to be delivered in early November but was delayed and moved from the agenda and pushed to December.
Nhlanhla Gumede, a member of Nersa’s electricity subcommittee, submitted at the beginning of the meeting that the three items regarding Eskom’s multiyear price determination revenue application be withdrawn.
“It has unfortunately been identified that gremlins slipped into the calculations, and we need to make sure that, as a regulator, when we make decisions, we make a decision based on correct numbers,” Gumede said at the time.
The regulator members were expected to make a decision whether to grant Eskom the 32% price hike it asked for, and if not, how much increase it would allow.
The members were also expected to announce the tariff increase in the subsequent year, for which Eskom applied for a further 10% increase.
Source: Business Day, Business Tech, image from Twitter: @ewnupdates