Eskom has some good news for load shedding

 ·3 Apr 2024

Power utility Eskom says that load shedding will continue to be suspended until further notice – after a week of no outages.

Eskom said that this is a result of sustained available generation capacity as well as adequate emergency reserves. Moderation in demand – off the back of the Easter holidays and continuing this week – is also to thank.

“Eskom will provide a system update on Friday or communicate any significant changes should they occur,” it said.

The utility said that a total of 2,365MW is planned to be returned to service by Friday evening.

While delivering some good news on the load shedding front, the not-so-good news is that Eskom customers have been hit with another double-digit hike in electricity tariffs.

Eskom was granted a 12.74% increase for its direct customers by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).

This increase is coupled with a 25.64% affordability subsidy. The average increase for key industrial and urban tariffs will be 13.29%, which is due to the increase in the affordability subsidy charge.

The affordability subsidy charge is given as a subsidy to the Homelight 20A tariff and is determined by Nersa.

Eskom explained that it is paid by the non-municipal large industrial and urban tariffs and exists because of historically lower Homelight 20A tariff increases.

Nersa also granted a 12.72% increase to municipal customers. However, while Eskom’s prices went up at the start of April, municipalities will only increase their customer tariffs on 1 July.


Read: Eskom is shooting itself in the foot

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