South Africa Worried About Power Costs as Increases Studied
21 February 2012
Bloomberg - February 21, 2012
South Africa’s government said it’s concerned power costs are hurting household and industrial users as the regulator studies raising prices further amid stoppages by smelters to curb demand on an overburdened electricity grid.
“Government understands the need for the separation of our role as a policy maker from that of the independent regulator but we’re worried about the cost of power generation in this country and the cost at which it’s getting to the end user,” Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said in a speech in Johannesburg.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa will this year decide on tariff increases for state power producer Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. from 2013 to 2016. Gains exceeded inflation in the past three years to help fund 500 billion rand ($65 billion) of expansion needed to prevent a repeat of power cuts in 2008.