Eskom asks for extra tariff increase

Published Jan 17, 2014

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Johannesburg - Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which generates 95 percent of South Africa’s electricity, is seeking to recover higher than estimated costs through an increase in power tariffs, the utility said.

Eskom has asked the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to study how budgeted costs compared to realised expenses for the year through March 2013, company spokesman Andrew Etzinger said today by phone.

“It’s a regulatory mechanism to review Eskom’s cost structure and to propose adjustments based on those,” he said.

Any mark up this year would be on top of increases already allowed by the regulator.

Nersa in February last year approved increments of an average 8 percent per year until 2018, half the rate Eskom asked for.

The utility is spending 500 billion rand ($45.9 billion) to replace aging equipment and build new plants to avoid a repeat of 2008 blackouts that halted mines, including those owned by companies such as Anglo American Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd., for five days and paralysed factories in the continent’s biggest economy. - Bloomberg News

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