South African Watchdog Keeping An Eye On Solar Energy Pricing

The Competition Commission says they are keeping a keen eye on price gouging and fixing in the solar-energy sector and has urged businesses and consumers who are going off the grid to report incidents to them.

South Africans with the means to do so are exploring solar or alternative energy as the crisis at Eskom deepens and an 18.65% tariff increase granted by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to the power utility will lead to the cost of electricity increasing.

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In a system update yesterday, Eskom said the October 2022 failure of the chimney system at the Kusile Power Station was the major cause of the elevated stages of load shedding.

It said it was working with the government to acquire additional generation capacity from existing operators, both within South Africa and the region.

Prominent South Africans have also backed a team of the country’s top lawyers, who on Monday issued a letter of demand to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan over load shedding and to stop the Nersa tariff hike.