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Electricity tariffs change dependant on CoW financials

Consumers in the country will have to wait for the official year end financial results for the City of Windhoek at the end of June to know how much more they are going to fork out for their electricity bills.
This follows the recent approval by the Electricity Control Board (ECB) for NamPower’s Tariff Adjustment which will take effect as of the 1st of July this year, which will see a 13.22% effective bulk tariff increase to N$1.17per kWh.
The City of Windhoek Public Relations Officer, Lydia Hamutenya told the Economist that, “at the moment they can not really say how much the tariffs for the consumers will be, as these can only be determined with the tabling of the budget, with which the tariffs fall under.”
She added that currently the CoW’s budget has not been tabled and would only be done so at the end of June with the end of their financial year which they are busy compiling.
Meanwhile, according to the announcement this week by the acting Chief Executive Officer of the Electricity Control Board (ECB), Rojas Manyame the bulk electricity supply NamPower had initially made an application to the electricity Board (ECB) in terms of section 27 of the Electricity Act, (ACT 4 of 2007).

He said that in their application, NamPower requested for an effective bulk tariff increase of 21.29%, an increase from N$1.03 to N41.25 per kWh (generation and transmission tariff inclusive) for the financial period 2014/2015, to meet its service delivery costs and for the tariff to remain cost reflective.
“As part of the review process leading to the approval of the 13.22% tariff increase, the board analysed NamPower’s submission in accordance with the approved ECB Cost Plus-Tariff Methodology, scrutinized and made provisions of relevant documentation and also took into consideration expectations of key stakeholders including government and the possible tariff impacts on the end consumers and the Namibia economy at large,” he said.
Manyame then stressed that “The approved tariff increase will ensure that NamPower remains on the long run marginal cost path to enable them to build and maintain sufficient reserves to protect the Namibia consumer against price shock in the future.”
“Electricity tariffs in Namibia, just like in most other SADC countries will continue to rise over the next five years.
However, the Electricity Control Board in consultation with the government embarked on a study to address the issue of affordability of electricity.
The project titled ‘Support Tariff Mechanism’ is expected to be completed by the end of the month and is expected to make electricity affordable to low income customers,” he said.

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