Eskom Wins Court Decision Against Regulator on Tariffs
Eskom Wins Court Decision Against Regulator Ruling on Costs
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., South Africa’s indebted power utility, won a High Court ruling against the nation’s energy regulator, which had blocked the company from recovering some costs it says it incurred during the 2019 financial year.
Eskom had asked the National Energy Regulator of South Africa for an 18.9% tariff increase to allow it to generate 219.5 billion rand ($13.8 billion) of revenue. Yet Nersa only allowed for 190.3 billion rand of income, saying the power company should make up the difference by cutting costs.
The High Court in Pretoria said that Nersa had made errors in its determination, according to a copy of the ruling. Eskom has 60 days to apply to the regulator to increase the tariffs it can charge customers and the regulator must pay Eskom’s costs, the ruling said.
Eskom, which has 454 billion rand in debt, is struggling to cover its costs and pay for adequate maintenance to avoid regular power cuts.
--With assistance from Paul Burkhardt.
To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Rene Vollgraaff, Gordon Bell
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