Secret Eskom price increases bringing the pain

Eskom customers have started complaining about increases on their bills being far greater than the power utility’s widely-touted 12.74% average hike.

Eskom implemented its annual price adjustments for direct customers on 1 April 2025, aligned with the tariffs approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).

Among the major changes implemented is a realignment according to Eskom’s retail tariff plan (RTP), which shifts more cost recovery to fixed charges.

Since then, MyBroadband has noticed numerous reports from Eskom Direct customers complaining that their increases were much higher than the average escalation.

One provided us with two bills — an account for March 2025 before the changes took effect and another for May 2025 after the adjustments — with a 40% effective difference.

The customer consumed 180kWh (electricity units) in the month and received a bill of R882.62. If they had used the same amount of electricity before the changes, their bill would have been R628.45.

Only two items were listed on the user’s March bill. The first was the fixed network capacity charge of R180.04, based on a daily charge of R6.43 over 28 days.

The second was the variable energy charge, which amounted to R88.39 based on 36kWh of consumption at roughly R2.46 per kWh.

If they had consumed 180kWh like in May, the total cost would have been R441.98. Together with the fixed cost of R180.04, their total bill would have been R622.01.

The second bill for May 2025 included six charges, including two new fixed and two additional variable charges.

The first new fixed tariff was a service and admin charge of R94.83, calculated at R3.27 per day over 29 days.

There was also a generation capacity charge of R0.47 per day, coming to a total of R47.47 over the 29-day billing period.

Combined with the 30% higher network capacity charge of R8.35 per day, the customer’s total fixed charges increased to R350.61, 88% more than in the previous month.

The variable per-kWh energy charge itself increased by just 9.5%, which is lower than the average. However, that was without the new ancillary service and network demand charges.

These new charges added roughly another R48 to her variable charges, resulting in a total increase of 20% to the consumption-based part of her bill.

Overall, the customer’s bill was 40% higher in May 2025 than if she had used the same amount of electricity before Eskom’s price adjustments.

The table below summarises the differences in this particular customer’s bill if they had used 180kWh before and after Eskom’s price adjustments over a 28-day cycle.

The customer shared a response from Eskom support about the big difference between their bill increase and the power utility’s claimed figure.

“We would like to clarify that the 12.74% increase mentioned on our website refers to the average increase across all Eskom residential tariffs,” a support agent said.

“This average does not reflect the specific changes to each individual component of the tariff, which may vary depending on the tariff category and the characteristics of your supply.”

This customer is just one of many whose bills will increase substantially due to the implementation of Eskom’s RTP.

In the past, actual bill increases were closer to Eskom’s average figure as the adjustments were mainly against variable charges.

Electricity resellers were also up in arms about the changes, as most of their customers would be furious when they realised their bills had increased far beyond Eskom’s figure.

According to the Electricity Resellers Association of South Africa (Erasa), many households living in multi-dwelling properties like flats or townhouses are seeing increases of around 30%.

Erasa national chairperson Johan Hopley explained that customers buying electricity from resellers were consuming an average of around 400kWh per month.

The 12.74% increase will apply to users with an average consumption of roughly 700kWh for Homepower 4, Eskom’s most common residential tariff.

Larger households with higher electricity consumption will see their bills increase by less than the 12.74% figure.