President Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed to the board of South Africa\u2019s cash-strapped power utility to suspend its biggest electricity-price increase in more than a decade as the nation faces two more years of rolling blackouts.<\/p>\n
Eskom won approval by the national energy regulator to raise electricity tariffs by an inflation-beating 18.65% and 12.74% for the next two years on Jan. 12. The first increase is set to take effect in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will not be fair to impose the tariff on our people while there is load shedding,\u201d he said, using a local term for power cuts.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa\u2019s comments come after Eskom said the country could face two years of persistent blackouts as it overhauls its ageing power stations. He spoke in the central Free State province.<\/p>\n
The tariff increases are a key input in the National Treasury\u2019s plan to shift a portion of Eskom\u2019s debt of about R400 billion onto the state\u2019s balance sheet. It\u2019s expected to announce the quantum of the transfer in February\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
South Africa is suffering from an energy crisis, with Eskom implementing blackouts for more than 200 days last year and every day so far in 2023. The rolling outages are needed to protect the grid from collapse when the company\u2019s ageing, mostly coal-fed plants, can\u2019t meet demand.<\/p>\n
An additional 6,000 megawatts of capacity is needed to stabilize the grid, and a \u201cgreat deal of progress\u201d is being made in unlocking logjams to close the shortfall, Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n
In addition to procuring extra capacity, the government will ensure Eskom\u2019s diesel-fed power stations at Gourikwa and Ankerlig have enough fuel to boost power output when the coal-fired plants can\u2019t meet demand, he said. That would reduce the severity of outages.<\/p>\n
Eskom produces almost all the country\u2019s electricity, and blackouts curb output in Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy. Intense outages imposed earlier this month have taken a toll on industry and agriculture, and there\u2019s a 45% chance of the nation slipping into a recession this year, a Bloomberg survey of economists shows.<\/p>\n