THE POWERLESS PAYER wants a seat at the table, not just the bill

Platinum Weekly newspaper – South Africa is redesigning its electricity market. Before the chairs are rearranged, the person paying for the meeting is now invited to comment on two documents that could reshape how electricity is bought, sold and billed and all the complexities that comes with it.

Meet PP: the Powerless Payer.

He is the guy who has a reliable address for the invoice. Public comments on the Revised Electricity Pricing Policy, 2026, and the Electricity Sector Market Transformation Position Paper, 2026, close on 28 October 2026.

Competition arrives. Does your household get a ticket?

The market paper proposes competition between generators, including Eskom, with traders and eligible customers buying electricity through a wholesale market or direct contracts. The ambition is better efficiency, investment and, ultimately, lower costs. But households and smaller businesses would initially remain with their existing electricity retailer. The paper calls them “captive” customers. Larger eligible users would gain more choice, with eligibility expanding over time. Captive. An interesting choice of word for the guest of honour at a competition launch.

So, the question is practical: how will cheaper wholesale electricity reach the household that cannot shop around?

The electricity is cheaper. The delivery has a family to feed.

Electricity has a production cost and a delivery cost. In a typical municipal supply chain, electricity generators (Eskom) supply power, transmission carries it over the main grid, and distribution brings it to customers. The municipality also buys and bills for electricity. A private generator can sell to an eligible buyer directly or through a trader, using those same networks, or their own network, subject to the applicable approvals.

A trader can manage purchases and supply risks; its service must earn its keep. It is not compulsory in every transaction. Nor does every generator need to build duplicate power lines. Shared wires make sense… on paper that is... provided access is fair and charges are justified.

The pricing draft requires NERSA-approved network charges. Wheeling – using the grid to deliver contracted electricity – must not be subsidised by non-wheeling customers.

Costs include the generation of electricity, network delivery; capacity and balancing; retail administration; and applicable subsidies, legacy costs and municipal surcharges amongst other costs. Depending on the connection and service, bills can also involve connection costs, losses, wheeling or export-credit administration, and poor-power-factor or congestion charges. Some costs are bundled; they must not be counted twice.

The generator earns from power, network operators from delivery, and retailers or traders from their services. Customers benefit when the complete delivered bill falls. A bargain at the power station is only the beginning of the calculation.

Who gets the discount—and who gets the difference?

The draft does not promise to reimburse every bad decision. It expressly says revenue recovery is not guaranteed and pricing should exclude inefficiency. Excess losses and bad debt above approved standards should be excluded from recoverable revenue.

But there are important qualifications. Legacy power-contract costs would be reconciled against revenues. Some balancing shortfalls could be recovered through charges. And the section on negotiated pricing agreements allows certain approved special-price deals to produce revenue shortfalls recoverable through the regulatory process.

Such deals may protect jobs and keep businesses operating. That does not make their cost disappear. Publish the expected benefit, the shortfall, who pays it, and for how long. A discount must come with an address for the balance.

Eskom has also received substantial government debt relief. That debt relief will ten-to-one not be available for private electricity generators. That loss might find its way to your bill.

A watchdog needs teeth, not another acronym

The proposed safeguards include transparent bills, separate accounts, NERSA oversight, market surveillance and action against anti-competitive conduct. Municipal surcharges must not simply be piled on top of existing hidden surpluses.

Now for implementation: publish cost studies, disclose conflicts, audit charges, protect maintenance funding and impose consequences for abuse. “Loot, neglect, invoice” is in many cases the business model currently in place. And now put an extra burden on top of that which is already difficult to manage?

A basic charge is not a basic question

A grid costs money to keep available even when a customer uses little electricity. Fixed charges are not entirely new. But a single mother in a small flat and several households in the backyard of another customer with one meter raise different affordability questions. The draft proposes a lifeline tariff with no fixed charge for qualifying customers.

The public should demand workable eligibility rules.

Put power nearby. Keep responsibility closer.

Well-sited solar directly supplying a mine, shopping centre, factory or residential development can shorten the electrical route, reduce associated losses and avoid some new lines across neighbouring land. Already-developed sites can reduce land disturbance. Systems can grow with demand. Siting, drainage, fire precautions, batteries and eventual removal still matter. The supplier and buyer should take explicit responsibility for the risks that comes with their “Bargain electricity supply deal”. Neither party should leave neighbours as unpaid insurers.

Fund the clean-up and the damages before cutting the ribbon

Our proposal: coordinated scrutiny by NERSA and the relevant environmental authority, including DFFE where it is responsible, within their respective mandates.

Publish understandable evidence on site alternatives, community impacts and financial provision, while protecting legitimately confidential information.

Require independently costed provision for environmental damages, loss of property value, regularly updated financial security for rehabilitation and removal, plus suitable cover for foreseeable damage.

It is one thing to assess potential impacts on neighbouring properties and the environment while not being willing to take any responsibility for those impacts.

A report saying that your property might devalue or that you promise to clean up is not money in the bank. All this should be done before the development gets approval.

Environmental duties already exist.

The question is whether protection remains enforceable and funded if the project company fails.

Pull up a chair before the bill arrives

These consultations give the payer a chance to influence the rules. Ask who benefits, who bears each risk, who checks the numbers, and what happens when the promises fail. Platinum Weekly will post both documents at www.platinumweekly.co.za. Read them and submit your comments by 28 October 2026. PP should stand for Public Participation. The invoice already knows where you live. Make sure the policymakers hear from you, too.

Have your say: two documents, two submissions

The extended deadline for both documents is 28 October 2026. The official extension specifies no closing time. Send your comments ahead of the date; do not assume a midnight deadline.

Can’t afford another electricity increase? Don’t stay silent – email your objections

1. Revised Electricity Pricing Policy, 2026

Email: EPP.Comments@dee.gov.za

Address to: The Director-General, Department of Electricity and Energy, for the attention of Mr Joseph Maraba.

Include: the submitting person’s or organisation’s name, address, contact telephone number, fax number and email address. If you have no fax, indicate “not applicable”.

Suggested subject: Comments on the Revised Electricity Pricing Policy, 2026.

2. Electricity Sector Market Transformation Position Paper, 2026

Email: EMTPP.Queries@dee.gov.za

Address to: The Director-General, Department of Electricity and Energy, for the attention of Ms Vusani Ramuntshi.

Include: the submitting person’s or organisation’s name, address, contact telephone number, fax number and email address. If you have no fax, indicate “not applicable”.

Suggested subject: Comments on the Electricity Sector Market Transformation Position Paper, 2026.