GOOD party picket over City of Cape Town’s 'high electricity prices'

The GOOD party staged a silent picket outside the Gauteng North High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday. The protest targeted the City of Cape Town’s court case, seeking to charge, what the party deems, unreasonable electricity prices

This is a protracted dispute over electricity tariff increses between the City and energy regulator , NERSA

‘’The City wanted to charge more than NERSA approved. When NERSA denied their special application, they proceeded to charge more anyway. Cape Town was not the only municipality to apply for electricity rates higher than those approved by NERSA. This is a process that is allowed. All other applications were also declined by NERSA,’’ said Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary General.

‘’Cape Town is the only applicant that refused to comply with NERSA”s decision and to go ahead anyway. In Court the City is arguing that NERSA failed to consider the City’s projected drop in electricity sales due to load shedding and consumers going off the grid,’’ he added.

Herron estimates that the City of Cape Town has overcharged consumers by at least R660 million.

The municipality maintains that they are charging consumers less than Eskom-supplied customers.

‘’Under Section 15 (1) of Energy Regulation Act, tariffs must be set to recover the costs of an efficient electricity service plus a reasonable margin to maintain and invest in infrastructure. The City of Cape Town is one of a handful municipalities that bases its tariff applications to Nersa on detailed cost-of-supply studies, however the regulator failed to take these into account for 22/23 and 23/24.’’

‘’Buying power from Eskom accounts for around 75% of our costs to run an electricity service, and there is no way we can absorb massive double-digit increases year-on-year while still hoping to offer a working electricity service to Capetonians. Cape Town is one of a handful of municipalities that bases our own tariff asks to Nersa on detailed cost-of-supply studies. The courts have repeatedly affirmed that tariff asks must be underpinned by detailed studies and data, and has ordered Nersa, Eskom and non-compliant municipalities to follow suit,’’ said Xanthea Limberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Energy.

 

Done By: Mitchum George