{"id":813717,"date":"2025-02-22T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=813717"},"modified":"2025-02-22T18:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T16:32:16","slug":"big-eskom-tariff-changes-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/813717\/big-eskom-tariff-changes-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Eskom tariff changes for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>National energy regulator Nersa has approved structural changes to Eskom&#8217;s tariffs under the utility&#8217;s new Retail Tariff Plan (RTP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The changes will see electricity bills for low to moderate home users increase due to higher fixed charges, while average and above-average users should be paying slightly less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the new structure, Eskom will apply new time-of-use charges, fixed capacity, network and service charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will also see the introduction of new cost-reflective tariffs for Eskom&#8217;s Homepower and Homeflex services, the consolidation of multiple municipal tariffs, and the removal of the inclining block tariff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The changes will be implemented in the 2025\/26 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The time-of-use charges will be used to better balance costs around peak times, especially in the morning and the evenings when demand is highest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will introduce higher charges for electricity use, based on season and time. The peak-to-standard ratio will be 1:6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>High-season morning demand will be two hours from 06h00 to 08h00, and the evening peak will be three hours from 17h00 to 20h00.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low-season morning demand will be two hours from 07h00 to 09h00, and the evening peak will be three hours from 18h00 to 21h00.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The introduction of standard hours on a Sunday evening will change from 17h00 to 19h00.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Controversially, the regulator has okayed changes to fixed charges on electricity bills, with the caveat that they are introduced over three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It approved the introduction of a fixed Generation Capacity Charge &#8220;in principle&#8221;, but reduced its allocation to 20% of its current level in year 1, and 30% of the proposed levels in year 2 and year 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also approved the separation of the legacy charge to cover costs from legacy contracts with independent power producers (IPPs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Network charges will be split into fixed and variable components as proposed, while service charges will be converted to reflect the number of points of deliveries rather than accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This will reflect the true costs incurred, thus ensuring equity and fairness among users while encouraging efficient resource allocation, Nersa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A big change for those who are wheeling electricity is that the affordability subsidy credit for customers wheeling energy will be removed &#8220;so that all customers contribute fairly to inter-tariff subsidies&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nersa also approved an amendment of the current loss factors applicable to Transmission-connected generators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Currently, in certain Transmission zones, the loss factors are negative, effectively meaning that Eskom could pay a generator for being in this specific zone,&#8221; Nersa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Eskom customers will be affected<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The above changes will impact households, municipal customers and large power users in distinct ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The unbundling of energy charges, in particular, will see a new change in bills, which will increase every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The introduction of a fixed generation capacity charge will have a minimal immediate impact. <strong>However, it is expected to rise in subsequent years at a rate not exceeding inflation<\/strong>,&#8221; Nersa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The additional legacy charge for costs associated with contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) promotes transparency and does not introduce additional or new costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how other customers will be impacted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"4\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Households<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The introduction of a cost-reflective network and retail charges will lead to a phased adjustment over three years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The removal of the Inclining Block Tariff (IBT) structure for Homepower and Homelight tariffs simplifies the pricing model and will benefit low-consuming customers, Nersa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Transitioning to a single energy rate structure will enhance affordability for many households and promote a clearer understanding of energy costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Municipal customers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nersa said consolidating multiple municipal tariffs into three categories (Municflex, Municrate, and Public Lighting) will reduce complexity and aid in better forecasting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Some municipal customers will experience lower average monthly bills, while others will experience increases based on their consumption profiles,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Large power users (LPU)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shift to base service charges on the number of points of delivery rather than per account aims to create equity and fairness among users, Nersa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, customers with multiple PODs linked to a single account may see an overall increase in their<br>rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Energy regulator Nersa has approved big changes to Eskom&#8217;s tariff structure &#8211; including new fixed charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":742431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164,2006],"class_list":["post-813717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-nersa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813717"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813719,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813717\/revisions\/813719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}