By: Natasha Archary
Failing power utility, Eskom is coming after those South Africans who have freed themselves from loadshedding and invested in solar power.
Yes, Eskom wants you to fork out R938 a month if you have solar panels installed to your home or office space.
The state-owned entity is pushing the proposal to, charge customers a fixed capacity fee, whether they have partial solar power or are fully off the Eskom grid.
What’s more is that Eskom is also planning on including a net-billing rate for those capable of producing their own electricity.
Eskom, has over the past year, failed to provide electricity to SA, pushing the country into rolling blackouts with Stage 6 loadshedding throughout winter.
Now, that more South Africans are looking at getting off the Eskom grid and freeing themselves from loadshedding by investing in alternative power, Eskom hits customers with a mandatory tariff structure.
According to Eskom, the tariff is necessary to avoid over and under-recovery of costs from customers.
As published on MyBroadband, amongst the reasons solar powered customers have to fork out R938 a month are:
- To ensure fairness, equity and transparency of subsidies existing in the system
- Include use of system costs for generators
- Prepare for Eskom unbundling by ensuring divisional costs are accurately reflected to avoid large tariff impacts after legal separation
- Provide the correct pricing signals for capacity and usage
- Mitigate volume and revenue risk, and avoid price increase impact on all customers (reduced volume = higher price increases)
News of the proposed tariff has been met with shock and fury, and for a lot of South Africans this does not make sense.
One social media user wrote, that this is a new tactic for Eskom to hold South Africans hostage and cover their never-ending costs.
“We have reached a boiling point, how can Eskom under ANC of incompetent unstable Ramaphosa charge solar power users
Twitter user responds to Eskom’s proposed tariff for solar power users
Also read: WATCH: Bheki Cele pours away 30 000 litres of confiscated alcohol
