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'Show what Eskom wants'
08/04/2008 19:31 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance and trade union Solidarity want Eskom to release a full, unedited report of its application for a 53% tariff increase, they said on Tuesday.
In separate statements both said electricity consumers were entitled to know why the increase was needed.
The DA said: "There are no substantial grounds for Eskom to keep information regarding the tariff hike a secret as Eskom is a public enterprise owned by the state and financed by public money.
"Given that, if approved, the tariff increase will have a substantial effect on consumers, the public cannot be expected to accept the hike without knowing the grounds on which the request has been made."
Solidarity said it would write to Eskom asking for reasons for withholding parts of the report.
The union said: "Given the circumstances in which Eskom finds itself, it is in the interest of every electricity consumer to be fully informed of the planned tariff hike."
The application was due to have been published at noon on Tuesday on the website of the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa), to enable public comment, but Eskom secured permission to remove sections deemed commercially sensitive.
The amended version was posted after 14:00, but problems accessing the document, due to high traffic on the site, were reported.
Earlier, Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said the application to withhold sections was to protect the company's position in "hard-core" coal-sales deals.
Etzinger said that, without this stance, the company might have to pay more for coal, pushing up the price of electricity even more.
The company is in negotiations with mining houses to buy about R45m worth of coal, at present at a spot price of about $100 (about R779) a ton, compared with about R100 a ton two years ago, said Etzinger.
Energy-saving campaigns
"Unfortunately, this means that discussions are hard core. We are not talking about one or two percent here or there, so we have to make sure our negotiating position is as strong as possible."
The application document contained details of deals already concluded, he said.
"It is a sound commercial decision not to disclose the information about the concluded contracts that are captured in our application. It would compromise Eskom's position at the negotiating table," said Etzinger.
This also applied to information on its energy-saving campaign.
The company has put several energy-saving initiatives out to tender as part of its bid to avert to power shortages that have led to rostered electricity blackouts.
"We don't want to reveal the negotiating targets because we will find it difficult to manoeuvre... the dynamics are quite serious."
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