Even bigger Eskom price shock coming for South Africa – BusinessTech

Energy regulator Nersa has gazetted a consultation paper on the Eskom Retail Tariff and Structural Adjustment (ERTSA)—the final approval process for the power utility’s price adjustments for 2026.

This will see Eskom tariffs hiked by around 9% from 1 April for its direct customers, with municipal customers following suit later in July.

The price hikes do not include increases to Eskom’s fixed network charges, which will also increase this year.

Price increases were originally going to be a more muted, though still above-inflation, 5.4%, but miscalculations and errors by Nersa put South African consumers on the hook for an additional R54.7 billion.

The R54.7 billion will be paid over time, with the first tranche of R12 billion to be paid through higher tariffs in 2026, bringing the average increase to 8.8%.

A further R23 billion will be paid in 2027, with price hikes jumping from the original 6.2% to 8.8%.

The balance of R19.7 billion will be recovered through future price applications by Eskom in the next wave of hikes.

Nersa approved the allowable revenue following a court-ordered and truncated approval process in January.

Following the approval, Eskom is required to submit the ERTSA to Nersa for regulatory consideration
and approval by the Energy Regulator.

The ERTSA consists of an application for the rate of adjustment to tariffs applicable to the respective customer groups, as well as the proposed schedule of standard tariffs applicable to each of the customer groups for the applicable year of the MYPD.

Nersa said it received the ERTSA application for the 2026/27 financial year on 10 February 2026, and the consultation paper has been prepared “for purposes of engaging the public to solicit input and to ensure fairness and transparency”.

However, the window for feedback is incredibly short, with comments being accepted only until Monday, 2 March 2026.

The decision of the Energy Regulator regarding the ERTSA application for the 2026/27 financial year will take effect from 1 April 2026 for non-municipal customers and from 1 July 2026 for municipal customers.

The documents needed to comment can be found here:

Even more price pain coming

Notably, Eskom’s ERTSA explicitly states that the approved tariffs are before any fixed charges are applied.

These charges will increase in 2026, meaning households will pay even more than the 9% base price hikes in April.

Under Eskom’s new Retail Tariff Plan (RTP), approved by Nersa in 2025, the utility was given the green light to apply new time-of-use charges, fixed capacity charges, and network and service charges.

Nersa approved changes to fixed charges on electricity bills, with the caveat that they be introduced over three years.

For FY25/26, the fixed Generation Capacity Charge (GCC) allocation was reduced to 20% of the applied-for level, rising to 30% of the proposed levels in year 2 (FY26/27) and year 3 (FY27/28).

In the latest ERTSA, Eskom noted that the fixed portion of the GCC is increased from 20% in FY25/26 to 30% in FY26/27. The remaining 70% is included and recovered through the energy charge.

Similarly, service and administration charges for other tariffs are also being phased in over three years.

The fixed portion of this charge increased from 33.33% in FY25/26 to 66.66% in FY26/27. The remaining 33.34% of the service and admin charge is included and recovered through the energy charge.

“After updating the tariffs with the applied-for FY26/27 tariff increases, the rate changes required
by Nersa’s RTP decision for FY26/27 are included,” Eskom said.

Positively, Eskom has moved to make its tariffs more transparent, particularly for prepaid customers, to help them show exactly what they are paying for.

The utility is also introducing ‘EasyElectricity’ options, which are not new tariffs but rather convenient purchase options based on customers’ typical monthly kilowatt‑hour usage on existing residential tariffs.

Using these tariff structures, Eskom provides a more detailed view of how much fixed charges make up the typical cost.

The tables below show the general cost per month based on the EasyElectricity packages, followed by a breakdown of the variable and fixed costs associated with each.