Johannesburg - So you think you can plan the electricity price costs better than Eskom?
Get online and give it a try.
Eskom has loaded a considerable amount of information online with the pricing application.
“Download our numbers and come up with your own scenarios,” said Eskom CEO Brian Dames.
It’s a challenge to “build your own power station” – without running it at a loss – and come up with some useful tips for Eskom and the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa).
Online you will find Eskom’s 144-page Revenue Application: Multi-Year Price Determination 2013/14 to 2017/18 Part 1, plus the 97-page Part 2 with the tariff details.
There is a 12-page glossary that lists everything, from AI (abrasiveness index) through HWC (hot water cylinder), KLO (keeping the lights on) and MW (megawatt: 1 million watts) to WEPS (wholesale electricity price) and WUC (work under construction).
The media briefing document is there (a good place to start – it gives an overview of the process) and an e-mail address for queries.
And for the really determined, there are 56 annexures with the costs of running Eskom, such as coal costs; water costs; capital expenditure; environmental levies; costs of buying power from independent power producers; staff costs; arrear debt costs; corporate costs; Eskom’s credit ratings; international electricity price comparisons; and comparative capital and fuel costs for the different power station technologies.
Do some reading and see if you can put together a better pricing proposal.
The Star