Nersa’s tariff increase announcement
We welcome Nersa’s announcement of yesterday that Eskom tariffs be increased by 9.6% tariff for the 2022 period. While this is above the inflation rate, this is much lower than what we were expecting, given Eskom’s request for a 20% increase.
We do believe that our submission via Nersa’s public participation process and via other engagements had a direct and positive contribution to this outcome. In particular our arguments around Eskom’s inflated asset base and the poor performance of their existing generation capacity would have had a bearing on this.
The threat however remains with Municipal tariffs, which will only be decided in June. Given the massive electricity losses and inefficiencies, we are not protected from potential increases of up to 20%. Additionally it is important to note that the base tariffs of Municipalities are too high and require a downwards rectification.
Arising from the Eskom tariff decision, Nersa will now determine a guideline percentage increase applicable for Municipalities for the 2022 period. Given this, our electricity challenge continues and will focus on the principle of how the base of the existing tariffs to municipal customers is constructed.