Eskom has asked the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for a 32.66% price hike, the City Press reports. And, if the power utility is granted the exorbitant increase from Nersa, it will reportedly request an additional 10% increase the following year.

Eskom requested a 20.5% increase in tariffs for 2022-23 towards the end of last year, however, Nersa granted an increase of 9.61%.

The proposed inflation-beating hikes come when consumers are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living and are also at breaking point following months of load shedding implemented by the state-owned power firm.

Independent economist Elize Kruger said tariff hikes of this nature will be detrimental to the economy.

“Households are already under tremendous pressure due to higher food and fuel prices, a high tax burden and rising interest rates. An increase of this nature will squeeze households more and lead to less disposable income, thus pushing economic growth further downwards.

“Consumer confidence and business confidence are dwindling among all the negative developments, of which load shedding’s at the forefront. Now, much more will have to be paid for power that’s currently not even available to the economy for many hours a day.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday (16 July) that the government and Eskom’s primary focus is to put megawatts on the grid to mitigate the current rolling blackouts the country is experiencing.

The president said Eskom is doing as much as possible while dealing with big machines and equipment that they must properly streamline to generate the energy that the country needs.

President Ramaphosa spoke at Tutuka Power Station in Mpumalanga on Saturday, where he conducted an oversight visit accompanied by Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, Energy and Mineral Resources minister Gwede Mantashe and police minister Bheki Cele.

The president, who was taken on a guided tour of the Tutuka Power Station led by Station General Manager Sello Mametja, was briefed on a number of challenges affecting performance at the plant and the actions being taken to address them.

Meanwhile, Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter said that load shedding could be paused by the end of next week. De Ruyter said that some of Eskom’s power stations could be back to generation next week.

The president said that the issues are ongoing as Eskom runs big machines and boilers, which have to be maintained on an ongoing basis. “I am glad that management at Eskom has a program to ensure that there is maintenance that will bring all of the megawatts back into the grid,” he said.

The president said another focus is increasing power generation – to get more power onto the grid.

“Once we have more power onto the grid and get rid of shortfalls and close the gap, we should be able to see the end of load shedding. Even if some breakage or planned maintenance happens and we have the additional megawatts, we should be okay.

“I think the focus has to be on that, we are paying closer attention to maintenance and increasing the megawatts that will get onto the grid. I am glad and pleased with the plans Eskom has in place, we should be able to have a great deal of relief from load shedding in a short space of time,” president Ramaphosa said.