Pretoria - The National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa), on Wednesday, announced that it has approved the Regulatory Clearing Account (RCA) balance of R7.8 billion for Eskom.
“Nersa announced today that it has approved the Regulatory Clearing Account (RCA) balance of R7.8 billion for Eskom Holdings SOC Limited (‘Eskom’). The approved RCA balance is for the second Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD2) control period, 2010 to 2013,” said the regulator in a statement.
In August 2013, Eskom submitted its RCS assessment for the three years of the MYPD2 for consideration by the regulator. In its submission, Eskom applied for a cumulative RCA balance of R18.396 billion.
The RCA mechanism allows the power utility to adjust for variances between costs and revenues assumed in MYPD2 compared to the actual costs incurred and revenue received by Eskom, to ensure that both Eskom and the customer are treated fairly.
“In terms of the applicable provision of the MYPD Methodology, the Energy Regulator, upon application by Eskom, has to assess certain qualifying allowed revenue and expenditure against actual revenue and expenditure.”
The resulting under- or over-recovery is then recovered through the electricity tariff in the following or subsequent years. Customers could experience an increase or decrease in the price of electricity as a result thereof.
This means that consumers are likely to pay more for electricity.
“The approved RCA balance is for the second MYPD2 control period and will be implemented in the 2015/16 financial year,” said the regulator.
The RCA is necessitated by the fact that the revenue and expenditure approved for Eskom is largely based on forecasts.
The MYPD Rules require that from time to time a reconciliation of these variances be done in order to quantify over/under collection of revenue and over/under-expenditure on Eskom’s part. The Energy Regulator allows only expenditure that has passed the efficiency and prudency tests.
According to Nersa, the RCA consists of five broad categories of qualifying revenue and expenditure include revenue variance and pass through adjustments. - SAnews.gov.za
