Energy regulator Nersa is set to finally make an announcement on how much Eskom can hike electricity prices in 2023 after it met on Wednesday, 12 January 2023.
The expected announcement follows several delays by Nersa, which was granted an extension by the court on making its final decision on the 32% price hike request from Eskom. The decision was supposed to be made in November.
In September 2022 Eskom made its submission to Nersa where it applied for a 32% tariff hike for 2023.
The embattled power utility is trying to recover R351 billion through the tariff hike for 2023/2024and wants to recover R381 billion in 2024/25, Nersa said.
Nersa was expected to announce its decision to approve or dismiss the application at the end of November 2022, but instead postponed its ruling to 14 December to deal with the numbers which did not seem to add up.
According to Nersa, the delay was due to “a lot of guidance” needed in making the decision.
“Certain numbers didn’t tally, and the regulator was asked to expand the work. The work still needs to be done. There are vast areas that need improvement,” it said in December.
The regulator was initially given a deadline of 23 December 2022 to make the decision but was granted an extension.
The subcommittee decided that more time was needed to process the numbers and further pushed the decision to 12 January.
In a special electricity subcommittee (ELS) meeting held on Monday, Nersa noted that Eskom has applied for R351 billion in 2023/24, including RCAs and for 2024/2025, it wants R381 billion.
Source: eNCA, Business Tech, The South African, image from Twitter: @chrisyelland