From 1 April, South Africans will have to pay more for electricity after Eskom was given the green light to hike tariffs by over 15%. On top of that we enter the Winter Tariff months and a few months later, your local municipality will implement their annual increases too. A Triple Whammy if you like!
The High Court has ruled that Eskom can now raise a further R10 billion as part of its allowable revenue for the current year. Effectively an increase of 15%. And rest assured, there will still be load shedding on top of that just to frustrate you even more and making you pay more because you have to rely on alternative energy sources like Diesel Generators and the likes which cost even more.
Under the agreement, an amount of 5.44c/kWh will be added to the average standard tariff, bringing the rate Eskom customers will be forced to pay in the 2021/2022 tariff year to 134.3c/kWh — a 15.63% increase. Behind the scenes, it's changing the fixed costs. So if you normally use a R100 pay-as-go coupon, and let's say you got 50 units for your R100, under the new tariff structure, the fixed costs are going to be R75 out of your R100 and you will only get 30 units for your electricity.
This is just for Residential Consumers, the impact will be much more for Commercial and Industrial Consumers that utilize electricity to make their products and services and trying to realize a profit. There is a bit of relief for Identified Vulnerable Industrial sectors which will be considered by NERSA in terms of the short-term and long-term negotiated pricing agreements promulgated recently by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
Coupled with this, the start of the Winter months' Tariff will add approximately another 5% load onto your Utility Bill making things just that more expensive and less profit in your pockets. Furthermore on top of this in July the Municipalities will adjust their Tariffs to compensate for the April increase by Eskom. The domino effect results in your bill going up and up.
What can I do about all these Tariffs to help my Business?
It is important to have Archon effectively monitor and manage your Utilities through
The installation of Smart Meters that measure Demand, and Time of Use. This way you can be assured that you are being billed correctly, and that you are on the correct tariff for your usage. You can be certain that the Standard, Peak and Off-Peak usages are correct and at the correct rate.
You can be certain that Archon is auditing your account every single month to identify where there is overbilling and why it occurred and gives you a tool to dispute it with the Municipality.
If you are a Landlord, Archon's Tenant Management Billing System also enables you to bill your Tenants correctly. Making sure that you are billing them fairly and correctly, as if they were connected directly to the Utility Provider.
We find this a lot with new Clients we bring on board, they are billing everybody the same and always under-recovering. They are under-recovering from the small users ( who are being over-charged by the Landlord in relation to their usage ), and under-recovering even more from the big users ( who are being under-charged by the Landlord in relation to their usage ). Our aim is to give the Landlord a tool to bill fairly, and keep the Tenants happy ( because they are billed fairly and transparently ) and as a result their Properties are highly sought after business premises and are constantly occupied.
Please give us a call today and we will gladly have a look at your Utilities and see where we can add value to your Business, help make it as uncomplicated and hassle-free as possible, so you can relax and concentrate on what you good at... running your Business.