Firstly, ESKOM was granted a price increase by NERSA in June of 23.23% for municipalities. Then an additional government environmental levy of 1.97 c/kWh was also added, bringing the price hike to 31.3%. Thus the price went from 25.24c/kWh to 33.14c/kWh, or an increase of 7.9 c/kWh. Thus, one would assume municipalities would put their price up by 7.9 c/kWh to maintain the same amount of “profit” from electricity.
But they did not. Most also increased their price by about 31.3%, but since they already markup the price of electricity, this lead to a much bigger increase than 7.9 c/kWh. For example, let me use my tariff at home in Cape Town. Prior to the tariff increase, I was paying 56.89 c/kWh. Now I pay 77.37 c/kWh, an increase of 36% but an increase of 20.48 c/kWh. Another example: a large client in Stellenbosch has gone from around 41 c/kWh to 54 c/kWh, an increase of around 31.3% but an increase of 13 c/kWh.
So why is everyone shouting at ESKOM when they should be taking on their own municipalities??!! They are generating more revenue than they ought off the ESKOM price increase.
Frank
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