• 25.51% hike for 2025/26 financial year
• EEC request for revenue requirement of E8.7 billion over 2 years
Mbabane – The Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) has filed an electricity tariff review application for the financial years 2025/26 and 2026/27 with the Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA) requesting for a revenue requirement of E8 789 556 986.
During a press briefing, the regulator’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Skhumbuzo Tsabedze disclosed that EEC requests for a revenue requirement of E4 219 416 214 for the financial year 2025/26 and E4 570 140 772 for the financial year 2026/27.
“This translates to an average tariff increase of 25.51 per cent for the financial year 2025/26 and 27.06 per cent for the financial year 2026/27 excluding the 2.5 per cent electrification access fund levy and 15 per cent VAT,” said the CEO.
He said in terms of Section 5(1)(f) of the Energy Regulatory Act read with Section 32 of the Electricity Act, together with Section 5 and 6 of the Tariff Methodology, the ESERA is mandated to undertake a review, once the request is received by November 1. The authority is then expected to announce a decision not later than February 1 of the following year after a three months review process.
ESERA then holds public hearings to gather input from the public and other interested parties. ESERA then considers many factors, including the need for utilities to cover their costs while also keeping prices affordable for consumers. It may also consider the economic situation and whether there are alternative sources of electricity. The regulator then approves a tariff increase or decrease. For instance, in 2020, EEC requested a 7.16 per cent tariff increase for two years. ESERA approved a lower increase, allowing EEC a revenue of E2.25 billion in 2021/22 and E2.60 billion in 2022/23. In 2023, ESERA approved a 10.14 per cent increase for the 2023/24 financial year and an 8.02 per increase for the 2024/25 financial year.
In its recent application, EEC mentioned that currently, electricity prices do not cover the full costs of supplying power across the various tariff categories. Therefore, their application at that time continued the migration to cost-reflective tariffs across the various tariff categories.
The local utility’s application for tariff review follows that of South Africa’s state-owned electricity company, Eskom, which applied to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to approve a 36.1 per cent electricity price hike from April 2025, an 11.8 per cent price increase in 2026 and a 9.1 per cent increase in 2027. It is worth noting that EEC imports most of electricity from ESKOM.
EEC’s application comes just when the House of Assembly has approved a 12 per cent water tariff hike, which will be staggered in the next three years. The water tariff hike that will be effected at four per cent every year was approved through the adoption of a report by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy House of Assembly Portfolio Committee, despite opposition by some Members of Parliament (MPs). The MPs who supported the hike were convinced by the idea that the hike will fund Eswatini Water Services Corporation’s (EWSC) initiative to expand to rural areas.
The Chairperson of the Natural Resources and Energy Portfolio Committee in the House of Assembly, Madala Mhlanga, said the tariff should have been implemented in April this year, as currently EWSC is operating at a loss. He said the annual four per cent tariff will be implemented beginning next year, 2026 and in 2027, amounting to 12 per cent in total. Currently, EWSC is making a loss of E0.2 million. He added that the annual four per cent is the least that EWCS could get, after serious consideration by experts.
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