[imagesource: Pixabay]

You really cannot win with Eskom.

I’ve lost count of the number of days in a row we have had national load shedding, even if the City of Cape Town stepped up over the weekend and we had some respite in the Mother City.

Messages pop up on TV imploring us to save power and turn off all non-essential items.

On social media, we often see this from the national power supplier:

Be energy-smart and use only the electricity that you need in your home. This will help reduce your electricity bill/pre-paid purchases in the long term. #PleaseUseOnlyWhatYouNeed pic.twitter.com/eZo67ldFQr

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) July 18, 2022

Surely, then, Eskom should be happy with users and homes that drastically reduce their monthly power usage?

Incorrect – in fact, reports TimesLIVE, if Eskom’s new proposed tariff hike is implemented it will be households using the least electricity that are the hardest hit:

…if the tariff is accepted, it will see households which use other sources of electrical power, like solar, paying R720 more just to be connected to the Eskom supply.

In simple terms, those who are connected to the grid but do not use any of Eskom’s electricity would previously have paid R218, but will now pay R938.

Those who use 400kWh or below were paying R888, but will now pay R1,481 a month, and those who use 800kWh or below were paying R1,752 but will now pay R2,023 a month.

To use lingo popularised by the kids these days, WTAF?

Installing solar power at home doesn’t come cheap and should be encouraged, given the fact that we are likely years from seeing the end of load shedding.

Eskom is likely to submit the new tariff proposal to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) in August and it would then apply from April 2023 through to the end of March the following year.

Eskom reckons the average household uses around 900kWh of electricity per month and it’s only once you cross that threshold that you will start to see a saving of any sort.

These examples from TimesLIVE:

• Those using 1,200kWh would pay R2,810 pm, but will now pay R2,563 pm
• 1,600kWh would pay R3867 pm, but will now pay R3107 pm
• 2,000kWh would pay R4,925 pm, but will now pay R3,649 pm
• 2,400kWh would pay R5,983 pm, but will now pay R4,192 pm

It’s hard to look at that and not think that Eskom is disincentivising using self-generation at home with the grid as backup.

‘Use our (totally unreliable) power or pay a premium.’

In response to criticism that it is discouraging homes from using solar panels and the like, Eskom denied this was the case and a spokesperson said “there needs to be an evolution in the thinking of how fixed costs can be recovered in tariffs”.

It also says there are plans to credit customers for any energy they feed to the grid.

Will it offset the extra R720 a month those who don’t use a single kWh of Eskom’s power supply would be paying?

[source:timeslive]