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ESKOM’S 15% TARIFF DEMAND COULD INFLUENCE EEC’S DECISION

31/08/2018 04:06:00 BY KWANELE DHLADHLA

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MBABANE – The Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) will put into consideration Eskom’s application to energy regulator Nersa for an average tariff increase of 15 per cent per year for the next three years.

This was disclosed by Corporate Communications Manager Sifiso Dhlamini when asked whether the Eskom application effectively meant they would also forward an electricity tariff within the same region with Eskom. This question was posed on the basis of the fact that the country sources more than half of its electricity which gets distributed locally from Eskom.

necessarily

“We will be guided by the tariff methodology when making our application for a tariff review. The Eskom application does not necessarily mean we will request for a similar increase but the Eskom application will be put into consideration for obvious reasons,” Dlamini clarified.

In February 2017, the Swaziland Energy Regulatory Authority (SERA) approved a multi-year average tariff increase of 15 per cent over the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial year for EEC. All fixed charges, including the access charge for EEC increased by 6.4 per cent.

Moneyweb yesterday reported that Eskom’s application had already been sent to National Treasury and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) for comment, as the law prescribes.

It was stated that increase would be over and above the increases required to liquidate the E32.7 billion Nersa earlier awarded to Eskom to compensate it for lower than expected sales and higher than expected costs in previous years. The publication stated that this was done in terms of the regulatory clearing account (RCA) methodology.

recovered

If the RCA award is recovered over the same three years that the tariff application covers, and if Eskom’s application is successful, consumers could pay about 20 per cent more for electricity in 2019/20, and not much less in the two subsequent years, said economist Mike Schüssler.