Electricity prices in South Africa relatively cheap, but still more expensive than Zimbabwe and Zambia

[Lupus]

Can we stop the BS.

No consumer in SA is paying R1.23 per KWH. I don't know why this keeps getting used as if consumers pay it.

That might be the rate before municipal fees etc. is added on top of the base fee that the consumer then end up paying that is at least 50% higher than this R1.23 per KWH that gets mentioned over and over in articles like these.

I just looked at my Municipality bill and the lowest tier pricing is R2.08 per KWH and the highest tier I hit is R2.88 per KWH. This is after reducing power consumption drastically, I know the tiers above peak at around R4-R5 per KWH if you hit the highest tier.

Not even remotely close to R1.23 per KWH.

There's no tier at R4 or R5 unless you're going through a private reseller.

 

[Lupus]

View attachment 1208764
FTFY

Really R1.23 - who pays that?
My average price for the last few months was R2.32/kWh

View attachment 1208770

You use R2300 worth of electricity every month so you're hitting the top tier, I use 600 and my average is R2. Used to be R1.5 just 2 years ago but yeah.

 

[Lupus]

LOL great you made my point for me, thanks.

In SA end consumers pay at ~R2.08 per KWH at lowest tier. You just pointed out that Eskom is selling to international customers at 0.77 per KWH , so even in some imaginary world if we go by the SA average price suggested in this article of R1.23 per KWH you effectively showed that Eskom is over charging SA consumers and SA consumers subsidize international tariffs.

Pretty hilarious that you say I am lying and then you outright shows the numbers to make my point true.

It doesn't MATTER who is using the majority of KWH, the fact that international clients use less KWH and pay less per KWH is even more disgusting and means we are subsidizing them even more. In a normal functioning company the consumer using more KWH would be given lower per KWH cost yet per your example, 7% of electricity is used by international consumers and they pay at least 50% per KWH less than South African consumers.

In what world is any of this logical to you ? SA consumers factually getting shafted while cheaper costs get off loaded to international consumers.

The further electricity have to travel from the source also introduces massive loss of distribution so even the 7% of electricity used by international consumers would equate closer to 10% due to 3% (to simplify the math) long distance distribution loss. So if you calculate the loss in usable electricity due to long distance distribution then these international consumers actually pay even less than the pricing Eskom is charging them.

If you think for a second that this is at all proper well I wont be able to convince you otherwise.

Every municipality is different, COJ is under R2 a unit for first tier. In fact at 500 units I hit about R2 average, so stop thinking everyone pays the same as you. There sew private resellers charging much higher as well

 

[Binary_Bark]

Well, someone has to pay for the free electricity eskom sends them

 

[Herr der Verboten]

I do miss the we are not paying that much for cellular calls, how cheap dstv is or how cheap openweb was. You know a pattern is a pattern and each mygeneration has them.

 

[Jladan]

Yea but if you on coj for example and use around 500kWh per month on post paid you wind up paying around R3,3 kwh if you include network charges etc , so yeah we are getting panelled

 

[quovadis]

Come now - it's time for MyBB to use the famed "blended rate" ala-Vodacom for these comparisons.

 

[John Tempus]

I don't want to be that guy, but in Kouga where my parents live, they paid R1.32 up to 350KW last year (Now R1.44 - 2022).

In Richardsbay one of my friends pay R1.18 per unit for 2022 rates. The area buys so much power due to industrialization that the residents also get the cheaper bulk price.

I pay R2.77 on the highest tier atm in COT, but there are places that still sell cheap electricity outside Gauteng...

I am aware of these places but the cost per population density doesn't make a dent in the average pricing.

The prices you refer to affects maybe 10% of the total SA consumer base.

I am also not referencing industrial pricing since the average consumer do not pay industrial pricing.

What I am getting at is that if in some way the industrial sector in SA used 99% of all KWH generated by Eskom and Eskom felt so generous and charged them only 0.10c per KWH and the rest of SA accounting for 1% of KWH usage they charged R3.00 per KWH, it would obviously make the avg per KWH pricing in SA look super tiny no more than 0.15 per KWH however the entire country consumer base do not pay these rates.

In short, these average cost is as BS as the average yearly inflation numbers. The numbers they spew out is not what the average consumer is affected by, not even remotely close.

 

[Paul_S]

The average cost of electricity is likely a simple calculation. Take Eskom's total generated power for a year and divide it by revenue. We have plenty of freeloaders (thieves) as well as cheap industry tariffs so it will make the electricity tariffs look cheap to the outside world when in reality the majority of law abiding consumers are being milked dry.

Really pointless article.

 

[richjdavies]

I am aware of these places but the cost per population density doesn't make a dent in the average pricing.

The prices you refer to affects maybe 10% of the total SA consumer base.

I am also not referencing industrial pricing since the average consumer do not pay industrial pricing.

The average Eskom consumer is probably 50% a municipality, 35% an industrial or commercial building and 5% a rural farm and 10% a residential customer...

Average (mean) doesn't mean "me" unfortunately...

The average person has 1 boob and 1 testis...

 

[mypetcow]

LOL great you made my point for me, thanks.

In SA end consumers pay at ~R2.08 per KWH at lowest tier. You just pointed out that Eskom is selling to international customers at 0.77 per KWH , so even in some imaginary world if we go by the SA average price suggested in this article of R1.23 per KWH you effectively showed that Eskom is over charging SA consumers and SA consumers subsidize international tariffs.

Pretty hilarious that you say I am lying and then you outright shows the numbers to make my point true.

It doesn't MATTER who is using the majority of KWH, the fact that international clients use less KWH and pay less per KWH is even more disgusting and means we are subsidizing them even more. In a normal functioning company the consumer using more KWH would be given lower per KWH cost yet per your example, 7% of electricity is used by international consumers and they pay at least 50% per KWH less than South African consumers.

In what world is any of this logical to you ? SA consumers factually getting shafted while cheaper costs get off loaded to international consumers.

The further electricity have to travel from the source also introduces massive loss of distribution so even the 7% of electricity used by international consumers would equate closer to 10% due to 3% (to simplify the math) long distance distribution loss. So if you calculate the loss in usable electricity due to long distance distribution then these international consumers actually pay even less than the pricing Eskom is charging them.

If you think for a second that this is at all proper well I wont be able to convince you otherwise.

Just checked with Lonmin and they in fact use electricity. And Eskom supplies them. They even have a customer number.

This is what I said:

That’s the same or slightly more expensive than their off-peak mega flex tariff that mines use [2, page 19].

You can’t compare mangoes to avocados. Large consumers such as mines or whole countries will always get a better rate than you, me or anyone else on a residential tariff.

 

[richjdavies]

Just checked with Lonmin and they in fact use electricity. And Eskom supplies them. They even have a customer number.

This is what I said:

You can’t compare mangoes to avocados. Large consumers such as mines or whole countries will always get a better rate than you, me or anyone else on a residential tariff.

Depends how they use the power. Large usage tariffs can be very expensive because they pay for stuff that small consumers don't:
- service/admin much higher in rands
- KVA maximum nominated demand - i e. Their max possible speed
- KVA Actual - their top speed each month
- power factor / reactive power
- even their kWh have at least 6 different rates (peak, stan, off high/low season)

Very very big users have the ability to only use in cheap times...and (i expect) employ people and processes to make sure they arent making silly decisions.

Sooooooo many commercial users do stupid things and end up paying R10,000s extra every month because they have a half hour in the month that their KVA is too high, or are simply on a poor choice of tariff or paying for capacity they have never and can never use...

 

[Thugscub]

Lesotho glows like a Christmas tree on acid while SA looks like a nuked dead zone at night.
Do they pay for the electricity from SA?

 

[TheChamp]

Lesotho glows like a Christmas tree on acid while SA looks like a nuked dead zone at night.
Do they pay for the electricity from SA?

If they don't get the electricity they overthrow the head of state, it then becomes our problem again, you know how those Basotho are, it's for the greater good of peace and stability in the SADC region.

 

[grok]

If they don't get the electricity they overthrow the head of state, it then becomes our problem again, you know how those Basotho are, it's for the greater good of peace and stability in the SADC region.

No we don't, please tell us!

And then tell us about the Xhosas & the Zulus too.. dis gonna be gud.

 

[TheChamp]

No we don't, please tell us!

And then tell us about the Xhosas & the Zulus too.. dis gonna be gud.

I have nothing to say about Xhosas and Zulus.
But the Basotho are very mean haba qeta hoja matekwane. They can't be trusted.

 

[system32]

You use R2300 worth of electricity every month so you're hitting the top tier, I use 600 and my average is R2. Used to be R1.5 just 2 years ago but yeah.

Most CoJ pre-paid consumers are hitting the Top Tier - CoJ reduced prepaid bands in 2018/2019 as a way to hide the increase - the effective increase ~20% instead of the NERSA approved CoJ advertised 9.6%.



You use 600 kWh - that's low - do you have a Solar PV System?

I've just installed PV System - I expect to drop from ~1000kWh/month to ~150kWh/month (weather dependent)
Glad to be mostly off grid and load shedding free.

 

[Lupus]

Most CoJ pre-paid consumers are hitting the Top Tier - CoJ reduced prepaid bands in 2018/2019 as a way to hide the increase - the effective increase ~20% instead of the NERSA approved CoJ advertised 9.6%.

View attachment 1209070

You use 600 kWh - that's low - do you have a Solar PV System?

I've just installed PV System - I expect to drop from ~1000kWh/month to ~150kWh/month (weather dependent)
Glad to be mostly off grid and load shedding free.

Nope I don't have a solar system, we just don't use a lot of power. All lights are LED, only the rooms we are in are on, the washing machine is run on Fridays, dishwasher is loaded and run once a day. TVs are LEd as well and the biggest is set to energy saving if used for extensive time.
When I lived in a townhouse we were down to 250 to 300 units a month, the jump when living in a house is probably the pool pump.

 

[system32]

Perhaps they are not making a distinction between residential tariffs and business, no way to tell without knowing how the average price was determined.

For CoJ there is only 1 business tariff that is less than R1.23/kWh - it's the "TOU Off-peak Summer 115.86c/kWh"
All others are 150.72 up to the eye watering 476.35c/kWh with lots of tariffs at 250-300c/kWh.

See page 14 of:

https://www.joburg.org.za/documents_/Documents/TARIFFS/2021-22%20Tariffs/Power.pdf

I call this R1.23/kWh BS.

 

[mypetcow]

If they don't get the electricity they overthrow the head of state, it then becomes our problem again, you know how those Basotho are, it's for the greater good of peace and stability in the SADC region.

You guys do know that Lesotho provides SA and especially Gauteng with drinking water while at the same time providing itself with hydropower. It’s not all about peace and stability and overthrowing of head of states. SA isn’t a pre 1994 island anymore. There are interdependencies with all our neighbors on many levels.

The hydro-electric power has enabled Lesotho to become self-sufficient in electricity production, however criticisms have included loss of livelihoods for displaced people and ecological impacts.

Lesotho Highlands Water Project - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org