{"id":91368,"date":"2015-06-23T11:58:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T09:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=91368"},"modified":"2015-06-23T11:59:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T09:59:17","slug":"eskom-asks-for-reduced-tariff-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/91368\/eskom-asks-for-reduced-tariff-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom asks for reduced tariff increase"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eskom has reportedly requested a reduced tariff increase of 9.5%, down from an initial 12.7%, according to Reuters<\/a>, citing acting chief executive Brian Molefe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Molefe was speaking at a public hearing held by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).<\/p>\n

In May, Eskom made an urgent application to increase the electricity tariff by 25.3% for the 2015\/2016 financial year. This included the 12.69% price increase Nersa had already approved.<\/p>\n

Various bodies were able to provide written submissions in response to Eskom\u2019s re-opening of tariff negotiations, last week.<\/p>\n

In a joint written submission<\/a> to Nersa, a group of academics noted that since the initial electricity blackouts in South Africa in 2008, the energy regulator has granted Eskom an annual average increase of 22% a year for seven years.<\/p>\n

Molefe was put under the spotlight by the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) on Tuesday, as he requested a tariff increase to curb load shedding and to increase maintenance on its power stations.<\/p>\n

The Nersa panel challenged Molefe on various issues that he did not have answers to and at one point he remarked that \u201cI am still new at Eskom\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nersa had possession of a concerning letter from Eskom to Treasury as well as a report from Eskom that showed worrying signs about the longevity of Eskom\u2019s fleet of power stations, which Molefe had not seen before.<\/p>\n

They compromised to let him see the documents and to respond later in the day.<\/p>\n

News24Wire reported on Tuesday (23 June), that Molefe told the public hearing regarding the MYPD3 Selective Re-opener that, while Eskom had already been granted a 12.69% tariff increase for 2015\/2016, Eskom desperately needed a further increase due to the new build delays as well as its ageing fleet.<\/p>\n

He said open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), which produced 2,400 MW to minimise the severity of load shedding, was a money burner that required R10.9bn per year. This contributed to the additional 6.43% tariff increase he was now requesting on top of the 12.69% increase.<\/p>\n

Molefe said Eskom was also entering agreements for the short-term power procurement programme (STPPP) to add further generation capacity to help ease load shedding, which cost around R5.3bn per year. This contributed to the additional 3.15% tariff increase.<\/p>\n

Then Molefe said that if the environmental levy increase is gazetted, it would need a 2.51% additional tariff increase as a \u201cpass through of levy costs\u201d.<\/p>\n

The total new tariff increase would total 24.78%.<\/p>\n

After Eskom\u2019s presentation, the Nersa panel started listening to submissions from a variety of stakeholders, many of whom are opposing Eskom\u2019s tariff increase.<\/p>\n

Nersa will make a decision regarding the increase at the end of the month, but the implementation of the possible increase won\u2019t take effect in July.<\/p>\n

Reporting with News24Wire<\/a><\/p>\n

More on Eskom<\/span><\/h3>\n

Eskom\u2019s shocking annual price hike since 2007<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Eskom\u2019s sums don\u2019t add up: energy expert<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Higher tariffs or power cuts \u2013 you choose: Eskom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Electricity tariff hike will cripple SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom has requested a reduced tariff increase of 9.5%, down from 12.7% according to Reuters, citing acting chief executive Brian Molefe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":90550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164,26,2006],"class_list":["post-91368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-headline","tag-nersa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91368","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=91368"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91378,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91368\/revisions\/91378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}