Pretoria - South Africa's electricity consumption for April decreased by 6.2 percent compared to the same month last year, reported Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday.
Stats SA also said that electricity consumed for the first four months of 2009 decreased by 7.0 percent compared with the first four months of 2008.
The consumption of electricity after seasonal adjustment for April increased by 2 percent compared to March this year and by 0.4 percent for the three months ended April 2009 compared with the previous three months ended January 2009.
Meanwhile, the estimated electricity production decreased by 5.7 percent compared to last April.
The estimated production of electricity for the first four months of the year decreased by 8.1 percent compared to the same time last year. "However, the estimated production of electricity, after seasonal adjustment, increased by 2.7 percent for April 2009 compared with March 2009," it said.
The country's rate of importing electricity increased from 3169 Gigawatt-hours in the first four months of 2008 to 4 071 Gigawatt-hours in the first four months of 2009. This represents a 28.5 percent increase, while electricity being exported to neighbouring countries for the first half of 2009 decreased by 5.6 percent. This is in comparison to the first four months of last year.
Power utility Eskom has applied to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) for a 34 percent tariff increase.
Public hearings on the proposed tariff hike will be heard in Pretoria next Monday and Tuesday after which a decision on the matter will be made on 25 June.
