The decision by the High Court in Pretoria on Monday to deny Eskom urgent financial relief has dealt another blow to the embattled state-owned entity. The national energy supplier was seeking to increase tariffs by 16.6% for the 2020/21 financial year and a further 16.72% for the 2021/22 financial year.
However, according to a statement by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), Eskom’s application was dismissed by the court in favour of the previous agreement in place between Eskom and the energy regulator.
“This judgement means that the Energy Regulator’s decision, made on 7 March 2019, regarding Eskom’s fourth Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD4) for the control period of 2019/20 to 2021/22, remains in force,” Nersa said.
As part of Eskom’s Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD4) application, the regulator added that Eskom had requested R219bn, R252bn and R291bn in revenues for the 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years respectively, which was way over the budget set out by Nersa last year.
“The Energy Regulator approved Eskom’s allowable revenue of R206.38bn for financial year 2019/20, R221.84bn for financial year 2020/21 and R233.07bn for financial year 2021/22. The approved allowable revenue resulted in average price increases of 9.41%, 8.10% and 5.22% for the financial years, respectively,” the regulator said.
Part B of the review is set to take place at a future date. – Bjorn Vorster