Engineering News 5 July 2010.
A newly released comparison of proposed municipal electricity tariff increases for 2010/11 shows that business and industrial consumers in the Ekurhuleni metropolitan area of Gauteng province will be confronted with a 57% surge in prices when compared with 2009/10 tariffs, while the average proposed increase across 11 large municipal areas surveyed would be 22%…
The problem of inconsistent municipal electricity tariffs is probably due to the fact that the municipalities see electricity sales as just another source of income, like property rates. so they will charge what they think the market will bear – unfortunately electricity supply is a monopoly, so the customer has no choice. Therefore, one can argue that the municipal electricity tariffs should be regulated, as Eskom’s are, and the municipalities should have to spell out how the money will be spent i.e. on electricity infrastructure or on cross-subsidising other areas.
The problem of inconsistent municipal electricity tariffs is probably due to the fact that the municipalities see electricity sales as just another source of income, like property rates. so they will charge what they think the market will bear – unfortunately electricity supply is a monopoly, so the customer has no choice. Therefore, one can argue that the municipal electricity tariffs should be regulated, as Eskom’s are, and the municipalities should have to spell out how the money will be spent i.e. on electricity infrastructure or on cross-subsidising other areas.