NERSA Approves Eskom’s Electricity Tariff Increase

Earthlife Africa Johannesburg is not surprised by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) decision to increase tariffs. NERSA has announced an increase in tariffs to 24.8 percent in 2010/2011, 25.8 percent in 2011/2012 and an increase of 25.4 percent in 2012/2013. The announcement allows for a “business as usual” perspective to climate change.

NERSA’s announcement can be viewed as an endorsement of increasing GHG emissions through coal-powered stations. As such NERSA has failed to look at the long term consequences of Eskom’s new build programme. The increase in tariffs is a pivotal point for the South African energy history as it has signed a deal to finance climate change at a time when we need to focus on reducing our GHG emissions. It is ironic that NERSA has ignored its own costing which has shown that wind and solar would be cheaper in the long term. This is most definitely a missed opportunity for SA to include renewable energy in the mix of energy in the country.

Furthermore, NERSA’s approval of the Eskom application allows the special purchase agreements that Eskom has with certain industries to remain unchanged. A situation that means that while the rest of SA will be paying more for electricity these industries will be protected.

While we welcome NERSA’s decision to implement a rising residential step block tariff, we implore NERSA to revise the 50kWh of free basic electricity and to consider increasing FBE. There needs to be mechanisms to safe guard the millions of poor people in SA from these tariff increases. Earthlife Africa proposes increasing the free basic electricity to 200kWh per household per month.

For more information please contact: Tristen Taylor – 084 250 2434 or Ferrial Adam - 074 181 3197