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Outa to stage protest at Eskom “secrecy application”

This Friday, Outa will stage a protest in Pretoria against Eskom’s application to keep certain of its operating statistics a secret.

In February, Eskom applied to NERSA for permission to keep secret critical statistics which should have been included in its upcoming Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD) electricity price application, which will set electricity prices for 2018.

Outa wants Eskom to be held accountable and reveal all its statistics.

In 2016, NERSA amended the MYPD rules after eight years of lobbying by Ted Blom, Outa’s energy director, who argued that Eskom was hiding corruption in its numbers. The amended NERSA rules require greater operational transparency from Eskom, including on its coal-burning operations.

However, Eskom applied for exemption from publishing those statistics.

“Outa objected to these exemptions when stakeholders were asked to offer written comment earlier this year. In addition, Outa informed NERSA that, in our opinion, NERSA is obliged to hold public hearings on this critical matter,” said Blom.

“Outa will once again deliver its objection to Eskom’s application for exemption from revealing operating statistics, which we suspect will serve to hide actual amounts of ‘Gupta coal’ consumed by Eskom, thus promoting the consumption of coal that costs Eskom double the amount that it pays other suppliers,” Blom added.

NERSA is holding a public hearing on Eskom’s secrecy application on Friday and Outa urged members to attend to help hold Eskom to account.

The hearing takes place this Friday 7th July, from 11am to 2pm, at the NERSA head office at Kulawula House at 526 Madiba Street, Pretoria.

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