South Africa-based lobby group, AfriForum, has hinted about its plans to go to the law court to stop the country’s electricity regulator, NERSA, from increasing its electricity tariff.
Municipalities have applied for an electricity tariff increment and it is scheduled for implementation on the 1st of July.
A High Court order from October 2022 and the Electricity Regulation Act 4 of 2006, both require that mandatory cost studies are undertaken before any increment in tariff. However, it appears that that has not been done.
In a statement, AfriForum accused NERSA of not complying with the court order as they have sent a communication to municipalities where they are now providing municipalities with a new revenue requirement template that they can use when applying for rate increases–instead of the cost of supply study as the court ordered.
“The use of an approved template rather than the cost of supply study is a concern as it could mean that Nersa acts contrary to the court order. We are looking for verifiable figures to indicate what municipalities’ rates should be.
A cost of supply study is the starting point to steer municipalities and Nersa in the right direction,” Morné Mostert, AfriForum Manager of Local Government Affairs, said in a statement.
“For the past decade, there was a responsibility of municipalities to set up what they call or what the act calls a cost of supply studies basically, a study that informs you on what the exact tariff is that the municipality can ask Nersa.
Remember that municipalities make a profit from selling electricity, so it’s very important for us the consumers to understand what tariff they charge you,” he added.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com