Eskom wants South Africans with solar panels to pay more for electricity

The state power utility Eskom says it is working to make itself more attractive to consumers. Those who can afford it have started to turn to renewable and off-grid power alternatives. After decades of unreliable power supply homes and businesses have become self-sufficient, where they can.

South Africa’s sunny climate means that a solar kit is often a more consistent power provider than Eskom. An ailing grid and grim forecasts by energy experts has South Africans reconsidering their reliance on government systems.

Eskom is proposing changes to its tariffs which would use a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to solve the ‘problem’ of South Africans generating their own power with solar panels. It hopes to prove that users are mistaken in thinking that solar generation is cheaper than being connected to the grid- by increasing the fixed costs of being connected to the grid. MyBroadband outlines the SOE’s proposals.

One of Eskom’s proposed measures is the splitting of energy tariffs into fixed and variable costs, which would make Eskom more attractive when compared to alternate energy sources like solar power, it said.

Energy costs, which include Eskom generation plus Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are recovered through c/kWh charges.

Network costs, which include transmission lines, distribution lines and transformer costs, are largely fixed in nature.
Eskom has also reiterated that its current tariffs do not reflect the costs required to run the national grid and supply customers with power.

The power utility previously made this case in 2019, and it has repeated its argument this week, stating that its current tariff structure has caused South Africans to falsely believe solar generation is much cheaper.

Eskom has argued that its tariffs have created a “falsely attractive business case for own generation”.

By splitting its tariffs into fixed and variable costs for the consumer, solar power customers will still need to pay the fixed cost regardless of their usage, and their solar power system would not save them nearly as much money.

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Source: biznews

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