Uh, this is the biggest load of bs I have read from you so far.
In SA Eskom penalize consumers who use more electricity and they slap an usage charge in higher and higher tiers.
Why do you think mines started to move away from Eskom genius. They "used" to get reliable bulk KWH supplied by Eskom at a fixed rate so if they buy larger bulk allocation they get it at cheaper per KWH cost. This is not the case anymore, they are also getting screwed for higher usage or completely cutoff at a certain KWH utilization.
Your logic about large countries getting better rates is also batsht crazy. SA supply neighboring countries with electricity at a lower rate than what even our biggest mines pay per KWH from Eskom. These countries then sell the power to their consumers at a lower rate than even our SA wholesale rate.
I think you are just spewing pss and sht at this point and refuse to see the problem. Eskom have long standing contracts at much lower rates with these countries and rather than negotiating new contract terms (they wont cause these countries will look at other suppliers if the price goes up) , Eskom simply sht on the SA citizens to carry the cost.
Even after all of this I am certain you will still find a good reason why SA consumers pay more per KWH than neighboring countries we supply with energy would charge their own consumers.
There is no reasonable justification and your original idea that these countries use less power so their consumers pay less per KWH is the dumbest sht I have read from you.
John, please have a look at the Eskom tariffs before you spread misinformation. The mines incl. Lonmin are on the MEGAFLEX tariff. If you look closely you will see that they pay a fixed price for energy regardless if they consume 1kWh, 1000kWh or 100MWh in a given month. The price for energy (measured in kWh) they pay is determined by the following as you can also see from the table from Eskom's schedule of pricing:
- The distance from the power station (transmission zone)
- The supply voltage (kV)
- Low or high demand season
- Peak, standard, or off-peak times
They also pay a fixed network access fee based on the supply voltage. All is described in detail in [1, page 21].
The reason the mines are looking into solar is because of the spread in price between the peak, standard and off-peak which is huge! Depending on where a mine is and what time of year it is they can be paying as little as R0.5509/kWh!
But for a more realistic example let's stick with something like a Lonmin near Sun City. If a mine is supplied at say 140kV and it's high demand season they may be paying R0.6168/kWh off-peak and this will jump to R3.7491/kWh in peak. Madness!
You will notice the yellow (standard) segments around the morning, midday and afternoon in the second picture [1, page 7], that is 10:00 - 18:00. This is where the mines are trying to use solar to reduce their cost to Eskom. They can use solar to offset some of the the R1.1356/kWh they would otherwise have to pay to Eskom. They can easily generate solar electricity at an equivalent of say R0.80/kWh or below so they're going to be saving millions a year.
You unlike the mines are on a residential tariff because you need to sleep and cook your food somewhere. For that Eskom does indeed have a stepped tariff. The reason is that it is easier to incentivise
you to use less electricity than a mine that needs to run a smelter 24/7 or to run the blower motors so that the guys down in the mine have fresh air.
Here is an example residential tariff for sectional title properties that steps up the cost if you use more than 600kWh in a given month [1, page 30]. Here your energy price jumps from R1.9259/kWh to R3.0411/kWh once you've consumed more than 600kWh a month.
Regarding our neighbours that supposedly get better rates than the mines and that Eskom isn't renegotiating anything, think again. They are and our neighbours are getting the same increase as everyone else [2, page 77]. See the Transflex tariff. This was submitted to Nersa in June of this year.
Lastly, no need for name calling and outrage...
[1]
https://www.eskom.co.za/distributio...ard-prices-2021_22-v00-final-1-April-2021.pdf
[2]
https://www.eskom.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Distribution-Licensee-Submission_MYPD5.pdf
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