The National Energy Regulator of South Africa Nersa yesterday told Parliament it would appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal SCA against the decision of the High Court judgement in which it lost an application to to overturn the decision not to implement the Cost of Supply CoS method in determining municipal tariffs for the 2024/25 financial year.
The decision to appeal to the Supreme Court comes after Nersa, along with the South Africa Local Government Authority Salga, lost a judgement and appeal last month of an action launched by AfriForum seeking to stay the 2024/25 increases based on the CoS.
In a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy yesterday, Nersa said it had outlined the negative consequences of the order on the sustainability of municipalities, disruptions both on social, economic and financial spaces within the Republic.
Nersas acting executive manager for electricity, Velile Mkhize, said the biggest implication of the dismissal was that municipalities who did not provide the CoS studies with their applications will not be able to continue implementing Nersa-approved tariffs, but would have to revert to implementing the 2023/24 tariff, which will impact the sustainability of municipalities as Eskom increases on municipalities has taken effect.
Mkhize said this would expose Eskom to continued bulk supply to municipalities as they may not be able to service the account and would result in disruptions to economic development, social fibre and technical ability to maintain the infrastructure.
