Despite an initial decision to forego a public hearing to engage on the issues raised in a published consultation paper on the municipal guideline increase and benchmarks, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) last week declared that such a hearing would be held.
Nersa shared its decision to hold a public hearing in a media statement released on Sunday 9 April. The date on which it will take place is yet to be announced. The statement was in response to an article published on the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) website.
In the article, Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, claimed that “by foregoing a public participation process on the municipal tariff increase, Nersa is denying residents and municipalities an opportunity for a procedurally fair process to air their views on this increase”.
Nersa said that by publishing a consultation paper (Municipal Tariff Guideline Increase, Benchmarks and Proposed Timelines for the Municipal Tariff Approval Process for the 2022-’23 Financial Year) on Wednesday 30 March – which requested stakeholders to comment on the specific issues raised – the energy regulator did meet the requirements of Section 3(3) of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act of 2000 (“Paja”). The deadline for the submission of comments is Friday 22 April.
On Thursday 24 February, Nersa approved a tariff of 133,64c/kWh for 2021-’22 and 146,48c/kWh for 2022-’23, which results in an increase of 9,61% (“Power price hike ruffles feathers”, People’s Post, 1 March). Eskom’s application had been for 20,5%. To enable the municipal tariff process to be finalised for implementation by Friday 1 July, Nersa needs to publish the final guideline increase and benchmarks by Wednesday 11 May.
Originally, Nersa opted to follow a notice and comment process instead of holding a public hearing, citing a perceived lack of interest in such a hearing and serious time constraints as the impetus behind its decision.
“In the past, few to no presenters attended the public hearings to make representations to Nersa. Furthermore, the energy regulator is required to approve the guideline increase and tariff benchmarks in time to allow municipalities to prepare tariff applications for consideration by Nersa,” the media statement read.
Nersa has made it clear that its about-turn on this decision was not because it was procedurally incorrect.
“Even though the process followed meets the legal requirements as set out in the Paja, Nersa has identified a number of stakeholders who requested that a public hearing be held on the matter,” the statement read.
