A $3 Billion Error Draws Apology From South Africa Energy Agency (bloomberg.com) 35
An anonymous reader shares a report: South Africa's energy regulator apologized for a 54 billion-rand ($3.1 billion) error in calculating electricity tariffs, a mistake that will be passed on to consumers.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa, which determines what state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. can charge for electricity, announced the miscalculation last month, without providing further details. On Wednesday, it put the blunder down to a "data input error" that was picked up by Eskom, according to a presentation to lawmakers.
While the mistake had been identified before the tariff determination was made in January, it wasn't rectified as indicated at the time, and only discovered five months later, the regulator said. "The error is regrettable; it should not have happened," it said.
The incident brought into the spotlight South Africa's surging electricity prices and will result in them increasing by 8.76% in the next financial year, instead of the 5.36% originally agreed, and by 8.83% the year after, compared with 6.19%.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa, which determines what state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. can charge for electricity, announced the miscalculation last month, without providing further details. On Wednesday, it put the blunder down to a "data input error" that was picked up by Eskom, according to a presentation to lawmakers.
While the mistake had been identified before the tariff determination was made in January, it wasn't rectified as indicated at the time, and only discovered five months later, the regulator said. "The error is regrettable; it should not have happened," it said.
The incident brought into the spotlight South Africa's surging electricity prices and will result in them increasing by 8.76% in the next financial year, instead of the 5.36% originally agreed, and by 8.83% the year after, compared with 6.19%.
Get solar panels (Score:2)
Go off grid
Go Off Corruption. (Score:2)
Go off grid
Nothing matters until South Africa divests itself of the reason it’s still a Third World in the twenty-first century.
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Third world? As in a non-NATO or non-Warsaw pact country? The term is both outdated and a touch superior.
What reasons do you assume they are a poor nation in the twenty-first century, which is what I assume you mean by 'third world'? As if the twenty-first century was somehow more imperative of being whatever you think South Africa should be - other than centuries of colonialism and racism to overcome what problems do you think they should have easily fixed with twenty first century realities, where
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A rather racist take that one.
You blame the locals for "tribalism" but ignore the fact that the concept of South Africa as a nation-state was itself imposed on the population by colonial powers. Imagine if you lived in Texas and Canada took over all of North America. Then, they told you that everything south of Texas is now part of a new country called "The United States of Central America." Don't you think you'd feel a bit resentful? Like you are being forced into an identity with people of different cultu
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They are absolutely indigenous to South Africa, and even if some are from 'just across the border' they are far more indigenous than the Dutch.
You're probably one of those types who also doesn't like muslims in Europe, or latinos in the USA, right?
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If I was the world's richest man maybe I would spend a bit to improve my birth country.
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I'd probably nominate Morocco or Cape Verde for that title. Their GDP per capita isn't quite as high as South Africa, but they don't have nearly the level of corruption and inequality. Gabon and Equitorial Guinea also have higher GDP per capita, but they are petrostates and the wealth is highly concentrated so they still feel very much like developing countries.
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It's been how many years since it stopped being a colony?
Perhaps some of the issues are not artifacts of colonialism, but caused by other problems?
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This is both true but flippant.... the reality is that its not super cheap to buy panels, inverter, and battery. And there *IS* wear-and-tear on all of these things, though the half-life of panels has increased steadily in the last 30 years and batteries are also more reliable. "Buy from China", sure, but then you definitely start to play the quality lottery - or you go with reputable Chinese companies and face a much steeper entrance.
Most people who have electric appliances like will need a minimu
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I would love to but my country has a $3,521% (yes you read that right) tariff on solar panels. https://www.bbc.com/news/artic... [bbc.com]
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I would love to but my country has a $3,521% (yes you read that right) tariff on solar panels.
The tariffs on Canadian panels are "only" 25%. They make great panels in Canada.
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I understand that is precisely what South Africans with means are doing. The electricity situation in the country has been dismal for over a decade.
Will they fix it? (Score:2)
They admitted they accidentally set the price to high, the question is are they going to undo the mistake?
I guarantee you that if they had accidentally set it too low it would be raised.
Re: Will they fix it? (Score:2)
seriously. An apology without a plan to take responsibility for the damages is worthless.
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They admitted they accidentally set the price to high, the question is are they going to undo the mistake?
I guarantee you that if they had accidentally set it too low it would be raised.
The last paragraph of the summary makes it sound like they did set the rates too low. That would be why they have to increase rates by an extra 3% each of the next two years.
The cost of corruption (Score:2)
And this is how corruption eventually hits your own pocketbook. Americans would do well to remember this as their energy sector is brought to similar levels of dysfunction over the next few years.
After the 2021 Texas freeze, some of those people whose power stayed on ended up receiving $20,000 electric bills. Last I heard those charges had not been rescinded. "That's just how the free market works", customers were told. More honest than the Africans calling it a "mistake", I suppose.
Since that freeze I've b
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And this is how corruption eventually hits your own pocketbook. Americans would do well to remember this as their energy sector is brought to similar levels of dysfunction over the next few years.
After the 2021 Texas freeze, some of those people whose power stayed on ended up receiving $20,000 electric bills. Last I heard those charges had not been rescinded. "That's just how the free market works", customers were told. More honest than the Africans calling it a "mistake", I suppose.
Since that freeze I've been averaging about 3 days a year with no electricity.
You have to look at the positive side. Isn't it so much better without the Home Depot day laborers and restaurant prep workers?
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After the 2021 Texas freeze, some of those people whose power stayed on ended up receiving $20,000 electric bills. Last I heard those charges had not been rescinded. "That's just how the free market works", customers were told.
Didn't those customers sign up for pricing plans which they were informed could do that?
Self servants posing as public servants. (Score:2)
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Our bad (Score:1)
We forgot to use our captive subscribers to subsidize the cost of AI power.