The Eskom price increase 2027 has not been approved. It has been proposed, gazetted for public comment, and the window to object closes at 16h00 on 2 October 2026.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has published the consultation document for Eskom’s Retail Tariff Structural Adjustment, which sets out an average increase of 8.8% for the 2027/28 financial year, taking effect on 1 April 2027.
The word doing the heavy lifting in that sentence is average. It is not what every household will pay.
What the 8.8% average hides
Alongside the headline increase, Eskom is completing the third and final step of the Retail Tariff Plan phase-in of fixed charges.
The Homepower and Homeflex fixed service charges will rise to the full amount originally proposed for FY2025 in that plan. Eskom said these charges have to increase to be more cost reflective.
To stop the total from exceeding 8.8%, Eskom is cutting the Homepower and Homeflex energy rates to compensate.
That is a change in the shape of the bill, not just its size. More of what a household pays becomes a fixed monthly charge owed before a single unit is consumed, and less of it sits in the per-unit rate.
The arithmetic of that shift is straightforward. A household that uses very little electricity carries the higher fixed charge over fewer units, so its effective increase runs above the average. A heavy user spreads it over more units and lands below.
Eskom has not published a worked example by consumption band. The Generation Capacity Charge is a separate matter, and Eskom said customers there would see an increase in line with the 8.8% average with no further balancing needed.
The Eskom price increase 2027 in context
The proposal is also higher than Eskom originally asked for. The MYPD6 application put the figure at 6.2%, which was revised upward after Nersa miscalculated. Consumers carry the difference.
| Financial year | Increase | Effective from | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 12.74% average, Eskom direct customers | April 2025 | Implemented |
| 2026/27 | 8.8% Eskom customers, 9% municipal customers | April 2026 and July 2026 | Implemented |
| 2027/28 | 8.8% average | 1 April 2027 | Proposed, comment closes 2 October 2026 |
Compounded across those three years, a bill rises by roughly 33%. Over the same period, prices generally rising at the South African Reserve Bank’s 3% target would climb about 9%.
The longer arc is steeper. Electricity costs have risen by more than 900% since 2008, against general inflation of about 230%. The Competition Commission has found South Africans spending 85% more on electricity than six years ago.
Eskom’s own results show why the utility keeps returning to tariffs. It sold 178 TWh in the 2026 financial year, 6.2% less than the year before and the least since 2000, yet revenue rose 4.1% and after-tax profit climbed from R14 billion to R30.3 billion.
Industrial customers, historically Eskom’s largest base, bought 9.7 TWh less, a 22.5% decline the utility attributed to hardship in the ferrochrome industry. Agricultural consumption fell 5.7% as farmers moved to private renewable generation.
Generation availability improved over the same period, with Eskom recording a 2 to 3 GW capacity surplus for the first time in a decade, part of the stabilisation Southafriworld noted alongside the first real growth signal in the economy in months.
How to comment before 2 October
Comments on the consultation document go to Nersa in writing.
They can be emailed to the address given in the gazetted document, hand-delivered to 526 Madiba Street, Arcadia, Pretoria, or posted to PO Box 40343, Arcadia, 0083, Pretoria.
The closing date is 2 October 2026 at 16h00. Nersa said it will collate the comments and take them into consideration when making its decision.
The consultation document asks for feedback on specific questions rather than general objection, so submissions that engage the tariff structure directly carry more weight than those that do not.
What Eskom says, and what is not settled
Eskom board chairman Mteto Nyati has said the utility accepts that double-digit increases are unaffordable. “We are committed to containing increases to single digits,” he said in the annual report, pointing to the group’s Cost Optimisation and Revenue Enhancement programme.
Nyati has previously said Eskom would strip R112 billion in costs from the system over five years, and that the process would be painful.
Single digits still sits well above the Reserve Bank’s 3% inflation target and its one percentage point tolerance band. Eskom’s own forecast assumes increases averaging 6% a year from 2029 through to 2050, and the utility described that long-term path as a significant source of estimation uncertainty.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has argued that ending Eskom’s monopoly is the route to cheaper power. He approved the establishment of an independent state-owned Transmission System Operator in July, and has pointed to new Nersa regulations intended to build a competitive wholesale market in which public and private generators bid to supply.
Several things remain unresolved. Nersa has not indicated when it will decide, and the 8.8% figure could change. Municipal customers face a separate determination on a different date, which has not been published. Eskom has flagged that it will lean further on network charges, wheeling arrangements and revised tariff structures to protect revenue, none of which have been quantified.
The contrast with other regulated costs is stark. Southafriworld has reported on internet prices running below inflation over recent years, a very different trajectory from electricity, in an economy where the second quarter unemployment figures show how thin household budgets already are.
The comment window closes on 2 October. The tariff takes effect, if approved, on 1 April 2027.
