{"id":840173,"date":"2025-10-17T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=840173"},"modified":"2025-10-17T07:18:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T05:18:31","slug":"eskom-increased-electricity-prices-from-r1-08-to-r2-53-per-kwh-in-10-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/840173\/eskom-increased-electricity-prices-from-r1-08-to-r2-53-per-kwh-in-10-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom increased electricity prices from R1.08 to R2.53 per kWh in 10 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom has significantly increased electricity prices over the last decade, with the average residential price rising from R1.08 per kWh in 2016 to R2.53 in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These increases have been widely criticised for hurting the local economy and putting pressure on households and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another criticism is that these above-inflation increases, approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), should not have been allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom argues that, despite the vast increases, its prices are still too low, and higher increases may be needed to cover operational costs, debt, and other expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, experts highlighted that these high costs were caused by mismanagement, corruption, and a bloated and overpaid workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans should not pay the price for years of state capture and corruption, where Eskom was used as a wealth extraction entity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt even suggested that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa should be shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Nersa\u2019s primary purpose of determining energy prices is problematic, as it does not know what they should be. \u201cIn fact, nobody knows what energy prices should be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt explained that Eskom and Nersa\u2019s electricity price determinations were mainly based on external, highly unpredictable factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the increases have often been lower than Eskom sought, they have most frequently been well above inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt said the only way to determine the right price of electricity is to allow it to be determined by the open market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eskom in a death spiral<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many experts warned that Eskom is facing a death spiral, with demand for the power it produces declining, forcing it to charge customers more per unit to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impower energy expert Matthew Cruise explained that the big electricity price increases make it attractive for Eskom\u2019s customers to go off-grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the power utility will have fewer good customers who can pay their electricity bills on time, from which it can generate revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To cover its costs, which include salary increases above inflation, Eskom has to increase prices dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is clearly shown in Eskom\u2019s operational data. Over the past ten years, the amount of electricity sold in a year has dropped by 11.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2016 financial year, Eskom sold 214,487 GWh of electricity. In the 2025 financial year, it only sold 189,723 GWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the significant drop in electricity sales, Eskom\u2019s revenue increased by 111% over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means Eskom’s revenue more than doubled despite the amount of electricity sold dropping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electricity price increases explain the increase in Eskom\u2019s revenue. The average residential price per kWh of electricity increased by 134% since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average residential price went from R1.08 per kWh in 2016 to R2.53 per kWh in 2025, boosting Eskom\u2019s revenue despite its poor performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Eskom sold a GWh of electricity at an average price of R753,836. Today, a GWh is selling at an average price of R1.8 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charts below show Eskom’s declining electricity sales along with the electricity price increases over the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom has significantly increased electricity prices over the last decade, with the average residential price rising from R1.08 per kWh in 2016 to R2.53 in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":824206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1459,1164,23834,20623],"class_list":["post-840173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-dawie-roodt","tag-eskom","tag-matthew-cruise","tag-national-energy-regulator-of-south-africa-nersa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840173","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=840173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840179,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840173\/revisions\/840179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}