Times Live 3 December 2012.

Eskom’s requested electricity tariff could be lowered to about 10.8% and still be cost-reflective, Business Unity SA said on Monday.

“If more detailed information had been provided it might have been possible to find further savings,” Busa said in a statement.

“According to research commissioned by Busa, an accelerative price path, at a lower rate, can be achieved without negatively impacting on supply security.

“These electricity price shocks now have significant adverse economy-wide impacts.”

Eskom applied to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) in October for a 16 percent increase in electricity prices each year for the next five years.

This would take the price of electricity from 61 cents a kilowatt hour in 2012/13 to 128 cents a kWh in 2017/18 — more than doubling it.

Busa said the Nersa consultative process was as essential in making the right decisions about future electricity tariffs…

More …