South Africa’s power utility has asked the
energy regulator for permission to recover R22.8bn of costs incurred in
the 2014 financial year.
Eskom, which supplies about 95% of power to Africa’s most industrialised economy, submits accounts to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) annually, enabling it to recover costs that weren’t budgeted for when Nersa first set tariffs for the utility.
Once
the watchdog has assessed the expenses, it "will inform the adjustment
of electricity tariffs," Eskom said in an e-mailed statement on
Thursday.
The regulator in June rejected a request by Eskom to raise prices by as much as 12% above an already agreed 13% for the year to March 2016. The additional funds would have been used to buy power from independent producers and for diesel to fuel generators the utility uses to curb scheduled blackouts. The inflation rate was 4.6% in September.
Electricity prices in SA have almost quadrupled since 2007, when the country first had power shortages. Scheduled supply cuts, known as load shedding, took place almost once every two days on average in the first half of this year.
The utility had made an application to recover as much as R38bn for 2014, chairman Ben Ngubane said in the company’s annual report.
A spokesperson for the utility declined to comment on the change in the request when contacted by phone. If approved, the outcome would have affected prices in the year starting April 1 2016, Mr Ngubane said in the report.
In October 2014, the regulator gave Eskom permission to raise tariffs to help it recover R7.8bn of unbudgeted costs for the three years through March 2013. The company had applied to recover R18.4bn.
Bloomberg
Eskom, which supplies about 95% of power to Africa’s most industrialised economy, submits accounts to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) annually, enabling it to recover costs that weren’t budgeted for when Nersa first set tariffs for the utility.
The regulator in June rejected a request by Eskom to raise prices by as much as 12% above an already agreed 13% for the year to March 2016. The additional funds would have been used to buy power from independent producers and for diesel to fuel generators the utility uses to curb scheduled blackouts. The inflation rate was 4.6% in September.
Electricity prices in SA have almost quadrupled since 2007, when the country first had power shortages. Scheduled supply cuts, known as load shedding, took place almost once every two days on average in the first half of this year.
The utility had made an application to recover as much as R38bn for 2014, chairman Ben Ngubane said in the company’s annual report.
A spokesperson for the utility declined to comment on the change in the request when contacted by phone. If approved, the outcome would have affected prices in the year starting April 1 2016, Mr Ngubane said in the report.
In October 2014, the regulator gave Eskom permission to raise tariffs to help it recover R7.8bn of unbudgeted costs for the three years through March 2013. The company had applied to recover R18.4bn.
Bloomberg
No comments:
Post a Comment