Cape Town – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Monday welcomed the decision by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to reject Eskom’s application to raise its electricity prices further this year.
In a statement NUM said: “The current electricity prices are not affordable to the poor and are impacting negatively on them.Electricity prices in South Africa have almost quadrupled since 2007 when the country first had power shortages.”
The power utility requested a 9.58 percent tariff increase in the selective reopener for the third multi-year price determination (MYPD 3) for the period July 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016.
The power utility applied for a 25.3 percent increase in electricity tariffs for the current year, of which Nersa approved a 12.6 percent increase on April 1.
Eskom had said the increase was meant to fund higher usage of open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) and to cover the cost of buying electricity through the short-term power purchase programme (STPPP) in order to limit the “severity of load shedding and the impact on the economy”.
ANA