Electricity price hike hits Erongo residents

The price of power has increased in the Erongo region after the Electricity Control Board (ECB) approved a 9% bulk power tariff increase last week.

The increase resulted from Erongored, which supplies power to the coastal area of the country, passing on the cost to consumers. National power utility NamPower also announced a tariff adjustment in May this year. The board announced that NamPower’s average tariff would increase from N$1,82 to N$2,12 per kilowatt hour for the 2023/2024 financial year.

It constitutes an average increase of 8,97%, of which the actual impact to Erongored is 9,9%. Erongored chief executive officer Nico Niemand announced on Thursday at Walvis Bay that tariff adjustments are effective from 1 July, except for prepaid tariff that were effective from Thursday.

“Although the approved weighted tariffs is 9%, the impact on customers will vary depending on individual consumer consumption patterns and the type of connection. It is worth mentioning that for every unit sold, about 70% goes to NamPower. Erongored uses the remaining 30% for its operations.With regard to the statutory levies, the ECB levy will remain unchanged for the period of 12 months, starting 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. Similarly, the NEF levy for 2023/2024 will remain unchanged as we have not received any indication of an increase from the Ministry of Mines and Energy,” he said. He said the company had to look for all possible ways to cushion the impact on its customers while ensuring that service delivery is not compromised.

Erongored will, therefore, continue subsidising tariffs for pensioners and low-income earners. The regional distributor urged pensioners to re-register to continue benefiting from the subsidised tariffs for the company to mitigate the risk of misuse of the scheme, and also urged community members who qualify for social tariffs to apply.

“The company has considered all possible ways to ensure the most reasonable tariff adjustments to customers, while ensuring the sustainability of the company.

We intend to reduce our expenditures as well as put some of our projects on hold. We are also in the process of exploring alternative sources of cheaper electricity. In our efforts to diversify our energy mix, the board recently approved a 20MW solar project. Soon the company will advertise the tender to appoint a suitable strategic partner for the development of this project.

Our intention with these strategies is to ensure the sustainability of the business and also to ensure that we manage and pass the least electricity prices to our consumers. I believe with support from all our stakeholders, we will be able to stabilise the tariffs in future,” said Niemand.
He urged customers to continue settling their accounts on time to allow the power distributor to pay NamPower on time and ensure uninterrupted electricity services. Erongored is one of the few distributors that were not affected by NamPower’s debt collection plan.

“Although it is hard on consumers, we should expect increases. The company can unfortunately not avoid it, otherwise, we will all sit here without electricity. I am happy that we are assured that this region’s power supply will not be disconnected, but we have a part to play,” said a resident, Elmo Shilongo.

“I commend the company for thinking about us pensioners. The discount will help a lot,” said Alma Nangolo.

The detailed tariff schedule will be placed in various newspapers, the company website and in the tariff booklet which can be obtained from the company’s offices.

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