The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), which is in charge of setting power prices and tariffs for the country's state-run power utility Eskom, will start a series of nation-wide public hearings on the future electricity tariffs. This follows Eskom's request for a 45% electricity price hike spread over the next three years (15%/year increase). NERSA will hold hearings over the next three weeks and will determine what the debt-ladden company will charge for electricity.
Eskom's request for a 45% hike is much higher than the 4.41% increase over 2019-2020 that NERSA already granted to Eskom. The company argued that this 15%/year increase will be necessary to ensure the implementation of its current growth strategy. Eskom is suffering from significant financial difficulties and recently delayed its development strategy. The utility also scrapped its plans to add 9,600 MW of nuclear power capacity by 2030. Instead, it will focus on gas-fired, wind and solar power plants.