Question NW304 to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy
08 March 2024 - NW304
Halse, Ms T to ask the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy
(1) What is the total number of municipalities that submit to National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) for approval of the electricity tariffs adopted in Council within the required time frames for approval; (2) does NERSA compare the minutes of the Council meeting to check if the adopted electricity tariffs are the same as those transferred to the NERSA form for adoption; if not, why not, if so, what is the total number of discrepancies that have been identified?
Reply:
(1) NERSA has 176 licensed distributors, 12 of which are private distributors. The 164 municipal distributors submit tariff applications to NERSA annually, prior to the 1 July implementation date. Although some municipalities occasionally submit their applications late, NERSA always follows up with such municipalities in an effort to have the approvals finalised by 1 July.
(2) Subsequent to the tariff approvals, NERSA requests tariff schedules from municipalities and compares them with the approved tariffs to ensure that the correct tariffs are being charged to customers.
Further to this, NERSA conducts compliance audits on the licenced distributors annually. This is done to ensure compliance with NERSA’s licence conditions, which, among others, relates to verifying whether licenced distributors implement NERSA-approved tariffs.
It must be noted that NERSA does not analyse the minutes of the Council meeting to check whether the adopted electricity tariffs are the same as those that have been transferred to the NERSA form for tariff application, as NERSA believes that the submission for tariff applications is made and signed off by the highest officer of the municipality, which represents the decision of the Council.
NERSA, therefore, does not undertake to verify the decision made by the Council. This is also done to avoid the further lengthening of the tariff approval process.