Big win for electricity and petrol price transparency in South Africa

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has announced a major change in how they will handle meetings dealing with electricity and petrol price adjustments in South Africa.

Nersa said during a meeting on 23 February 2024, it made a “significant” decision regarding the processing of high-profile decisions by its subcommittees, particularly the Electricity subcommittee and the Petroleum Pipelines subcommittee.

“The Energy Regulator resolved that all subcommittees will no longer withhold the exact number or decision, for example, the total percentage of allowed tariff [increase] or revenue being recommended to the Energy Regulator for approval in high-profile matters,” Nersa explained.

Nersa said the decision was in keeping with section 8(9) of the National Energy Regulator Act, which mandated that all Energy Regulator meetings must be open to the public.

The only allowable exception is when subcommittees discuss information requiring the Energy Regulator to refuse access under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

Although subcommittee meetings discussing the recommended tariff adjustments are already open to the public, the members of the committee would previously censor details of specific tariff adjustments.

These would only become known once Nersa published its decision on the adjustments and notified the required regulated entities of the decision.

Nersa said the change was a step towards greater transparency and accountability in Energy Regulator proceedings, particularly in cases involving applications from Eskom and Transnet.

The regulator said unless a resolution was passed to withhold information due to legal constraints, all subcommittees would fully disclose the intended recommendations to the Energy Regulator.