The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has approved tariff hike applications from 178 licenced municipal and private electricity distributors.against the regulator in early June 2024 to block the price hikes.
The regulator said the applications for the 2024/25 financial year were processed in accordance with the provisions of the Electricity Regulation Act and with the abovementioned court ruling.“The applications were published on the Nersa website to solicit comments from affected parties, which were taken into consideration in the decision-making process,” the regulator said.
Effectively, the method only considered how municipalities’ biggest electricity supply cost elements increased. “The regulator recently sent communications to municipalities in which the use of a revenue requirement template instead of the prescribed cost study was made available for tariff increase applications,” he said.
AfriForum local government affairs advisor Deidré Steffens said his organisation submitted its court application to benefit South African consumers.“It appears as if Nersa’s current policy and process is not being carried out in accordance with the law and is therefore being applied to the detriment of consumers — and this is what we urgently need to stop.”