The Department of Electricity and Energy (DEE) has opened the draft revised Electricity Pricing Policy (EPP) for public comment, giving South Africans until 20 September 2026 to submit input. The updated policy, approved by Cabinet in August 2026, replaces the original 2008 framework and aims to align electricity tariffs with a transformed and increasingly competitive electricity supply industry.

The draft will provide direction on cost-reflective tariffs, transparent tariff structures, the allocation of generation, transmission, distribution and retail costs, and the protection of vulnerable consumers. It comes after structural changes including private sector generation, distributed energy resources, electricity trading, wheeling, and the Electricity Regulation Amendment Act of 2024.

Policy Aims For 10-Year Tariff Certainty

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the new policy will require the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to publish a 10-year electricity price forecast, offering households and businesses long-term visibility. “We want everyone to have some degree of certainty on what will be the cost of electricity, not just today or tomorrow, not only in three years’ time or five years’ time. We want to create a 10-year horizon,” Ramokgopa stated.

Independent electricity pricing specialist Deon Conradie described the draft as largely a modernisation of the previous policy. “The significance of the revised policy … lies less in the introduction of entirely new pricing principles and more in providing a clearer framework for an electricity market that is no longer dominated by a vertically integrated Eskom,” Conradie said.

Consumer Protection And Billing Transparency

The policy mandates Eskom and municipalities to issue itemised electricity bills that break down energy costs and conversion-related charges. “The bill that you are receiving must be able to itemise how the municipality or Eskom has arrived at that which they say you owe the municipality, or you owe Eskom,” Ramokgopa explained.

The DEE has emphasised that the revision ensures government’s pricing policy remains fit for purpose. It also maintains the existing framework of Free Basic Electricity allocation, which Ramokgopa said is sufficient at R21 billion per annum to protect poor households through improved efficiency and addressing leakages.

Public comments must be submitted by 20 September 2026. The draft policy documents are available from the Department of Electricity and Energy and the Government Printing Works.