Your cart is empty!
Opposing electricity price increases
Over the years, OUTA has repeatedly opposed over-inflation increases in the price of electicity
2020/21
April 2020: OUTA called for a 0% increase in the Eskom electricity price and made a submission to NERSA on this.
NERSA is considering how much the municipalities will be allowed to increase the price of electricity to their customers on 1 July 2020. The regulator’s proposal is for an increase of 6.24%. This is based on the previously approved average increase in Eskom’s prices of 8.76% and Eskom’s increase in the price of bulk electricity to municipalities of 6.9%. The municipal increase is calculated on the assumption that 74% of a municipality’s electricity costs are buying bulk electricity from Eskom and the rest of the costs, which include salaries, repairs and maintenance, will increase at a lower rate than the bulk electricity increase.
OUTA’s submission is here.
NERSA’s proposal on the municipal price increase is here and call for comment is here.
June 2020: OUTA OUTA makes a submission to the City of Johannesburg on the City's draft budget for 2020/21. OUTA submission included objecting to the City's proposal to introduce a new monthly charge for domestic and business prepaid users. The submission is here. The City dropped this from the final budget.
February 2021: OUTA made a submission to NERSA, opposing the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy's proposal to build 2 500 MW of new nuclear power. See more on OUTA's objections to this here.
June 2020: OUTA OUTA makes a submission to the City of Johannesburg on the City's draft budget for 2020/21. OUTA submission included objecting to the City's proposal to introduce a new monthly charge for domestic and business prepaid users. The submission is here. The City dropped this from the final budget.
February 2021: OUTA made a submission to NERSA, opposing the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy's proposal to build 2 500 MW of new nuclear power. See more on OUTA's objections to this here.
2021/22
May 2021: OUTA writes to the City of Johannesburg, objected to the proposal to charges prepaid electricity users a new monthly levy. The City subsequently drops the proposal.
22 October 2021: OUTA makes a submission to NERSA on its consultation paper on a new electricity methodology. OUTA's submission agreed that the methodology needs updating but called for a more thoughtful, inclusive and longer public consultation process. A summary is here and the submission is here.
2022/23
7 March 2022: OUTA submits comments to the National Energy Regulator (NERSA), opposing Eskom’s application for a Regulatory Clearing Account top-up for 2020/21, and calling for this pricing mechanism to be overhauled. The submission is here and more information is here.
25 March 2022: OUTA makes two submissions to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, one commenting on the draft Electricity Pricing Policy (see here) and the other on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill (see here). More on OUTA’s comments on these is here.
30 March 2022: OUTA makes a presentation to the Electricity Wheeling Conference in Cape Town, saying prosumers should be encouraged not penalised, and wheeling charges should be related to maintenance costs not profits. The presentation is here.
12 July 2022: OUTA and 15 other civil society organisations write to Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe, calling on him to immediately allow new renewable energy to be built and connected to the grid. The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) of 2019 includes plans to build renewable energy plants that can provide 20 400 MW of electricity and 2 088 MW of storage by 2030, but so far the Minister has issued determinations for only 6 800 MW of renewable energy and 513 MW of storage. See more here.
10 August 2022: OUTA submission to NERSA on the consultation paper on the methodology for the determination of tariffs and prices in the electricity industry. The submission is here.
19 September 2022: OUTA submission to NERSA on Eskom’s MYPD5 pricing application, in which OUTA called for NERSA to limit Eskom’s increase to a CPI increase only. See more here and the submission here.
