South Africa proposed sweeping changes to its electricity-tariff framework, the biggest overhaul of its pricing policy in almost two decades.
The plan includes introducing a 10-year pricing forecast, unbundled tariffs, and extending its negotiated pricing agreement program to sectors beyond the mining industry, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told reporters in the capital, Pretoria, on Tuesday.
“Ongoing electricity sector transformations, including the introduction of market-based mechanisms and increased competition, necessitate a revised policy framework that is aligned with the evolving electricity market,” he said.
South Africa is implementing a series of reforms aimed at ending state power utility Eskom’s century-old monopoly by splitting it into three separate units and bringing in private suppliers.
At the same time, it’s redesigning tariff structures so they better reflect the cost of supplying electricity. The nation’s current pricing policy dates back to 2008.
South Africa struggled through more than 15 years of power-rationing known locally as loadshedding before the situation eased in 2024.
Economic growth in Africa’s largest economy hasn’t exceeded 1% on average for more than a decade, in large part because of the energy deficit.
The new policy seeks to strengthen the regulations that determine electricity prices to make them more transparent by separating charges across generation, transmission, distribution, and retail and integrating them into a more consistent framework
