The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) announced this week, its approval of Eskom tariffs for customers buying directly from the power utility.
The approved standard tariff increase of 12.74% is applicable from the1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026 for Eskom direct customers.
Municipal customers are expected to pay a 11.32% increase as from the 1 July 2025.
Charles Hlebela, Spokesperson of NERSA said the approved Eskom’s Retail Tariffs and Structural Adjustment (ERTSA) application, considered the difference in percentage, due to implementation dates of Eskom direct customers and municipalities buying.
“The Financial Year is from April to March, however, the municipal financial year is from July to June.”
He said the ERTSA, a culmination of the completed sixth Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD6), took into consideration the comments raised by stakeholders, which include, inter alia, the impact of the approved Retail Tariff Plan (RTP), the development of a long-term strategy to deal with the cross-subsidies, consideration for different cost structures, Eskom’s dominance and the limited consultation period.
Eskom said on Wednesday, approval from NERSA will ensure that customers pay for costs they incur, thereby reinforcing a stronger user-pays principle in electricity pricing, through the removal of unintended subsidies.
Monde Bala, Eskom Group Executive for
Distribution, said “our residential customers will no longer have to pay a higher price for consumption above 350kWh and instead will pay the same cent per kilowatt-hour (c/kWh) for all their consumption.
We encourage Eskom residential customers to purchase legal electricity tokens and for those in a need of increased affordability to register for Free Basic Electricity (FBE) and enjoy lower
electricity prices provided by our government.”
Bala also said customers that have registered their solar rooftop electricity generation, as required by law, will be able to export own-generated excess energy into the grid.