Nersa apologises for R54bn tariff error

South Africa’s energy regulator apologised for a R54-billion error in calculating electricity tariffs, a mistake that will be passed on to consumers.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa, which determines what State power utility Eskom can charge for electricity, announced the miscalculation last month, without providing further details.

On Wednesday, it put the blunder down to a “data input error” that was picked up by Eskom, according to a presentation to lawmakers.

While the mistake had been identified before the tariff determination was made in January, it wasn’t rectified as indicated at the time, and only discovered five months later, the regulator said.

“The error is regrettable; it should not have happened,” it said.

The incident brought into the spotlight South Africa’s surging electricity prices and will result in them increasing by 8.76% in the next financial year, instead of the 5.36% originally agreed, and by 8.83% the year