Staff Writer
THE Electricity Control Board (ECB) has approved a price increase request for electricity by CENORED, at a rate of 7.6 percent for the entity, which mainly operates in central parts of Namibia.
CENORED initially applied to ECB to increase its rates by 8.0 percent and 3,5 percent in both Okahandja and Omaheke, however, only, the regulator, only approved an increase of 7,3 percent and 3,3 percent in such areas, respectively.
This in essence means domestic consumers will now pay N$ 100 for 35 units of electricity from the initial 40 units, whereas businesses will fork out N$ 100 for 20 units as opposed to 25 units, and prepaid clients in farms and plots will only earn 17 units from 19 units for a N$ 100.
CENORED chief-executive-officer Fessor Mbango during a media briefing in Otjiwarongo justified the upsurge saying NamPower, the bulk supplier, also increased its prices in March as a result of rising inflation.
“In May 2023, the ECB announced an increase in bulk electricity tariffs by 8.97% from N$1.8222 to N$1.9856 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for 2023/24. The cost of supply of CENORED is affected by the tariff of bulk purchases, CENORED bulk purchase costs are covered by 60% of its revenue recovered through the tariff. Therefore, the NamPower tariff increase necessitated CENORED to increase its tariff as well,” said Mbango.
Meanwhile, as a gesture of relief to low-consuming clients, Mbango declared that they have opted to introduce a newly reduced tariff.
“I would like to announce that CENORED has introduced a new social tariff limited to a 20Amps circuit breaker at a lower reduced rate compared to the current social tariff.
This new tariff aims at making electricity affordable for our low-income and senior citizens with low consumption.
CENORED is urging the customers who are on the current social tariff of 40 Amps to assess their capacity to downgrade to the 20 Amps social tariff,” he added.
The existing consumers on 20 Amps, however, has also been re-assigned to the new social tariff in both CENORED and Okahandja, he emphasized.
“The current social tariff will also be available for up to 40Amps circuit breaker connections only. Any bigger circuit breaker will be reassigned to the normal domestic prepaid tariff. The General SME Prepaid tariff is available on application to small business customers with a single-phase connection, with a maximum of 60 Amps,” he stressed.
Namibia, and the world at large, is increasingly facing an unprecedented rise in inflation from electricity, food, fuel, and goods and services as economies grapple to emerge from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and geo-political uncertainty.
