NERSA Approves Eskom's 2026/27 Tariff Structure: What C&I Users Pay Now

NERSA formally approved Eskom's retail tariff and structural adjustment application for the 2026/27 financial year on 10 March 2026 — published as a media statement on the regulator's website the same day. For commercial and industrial (C&I) electricity users, the implications are immediate and compounding: a higher-than-expected base increase, rising fixed charges, and a further hike already locked in for 2027/28.

What NERSA Actually Approved

The headline number is 8.76% — but that understates the true cost impact. NERSA officially approved average electricity tariff increases of 8.76% for Eskom direct customers and 9.01% for municipalities for the 2026/27 financial year. The 8.76% increase for direct customers takes effect on 1 April 2026 and runs until 31 March 2027, while the 9.01% municipal increase kicks in on 1 July 2026 and runs to 30 June 2027.

These increases are significantly steeper than originally planned. When NERSA approved Eskom's Multi-Year Price Determination 6 (MYPD6) application in January 2025, it set tariff increases for 2026/27 at just 5.36% and for 2027/28 at 6.19%. The tariff increases had to be redetermined after there was an error in NERSA's calculations regarding Eskom's revenue. Eskom and NERSA agreed to correct this and confirmed a settlement, but they approached the Gauteng High Court to have this agreement made an order of court — which the court rejected, ordering public consultation instead.

These increases enable Eskom to recover R54.7 billion over three years. The additional revenue recovery has been structured in phases: R12 billion in 2026/27, R23 billion in 2027/28, with the remaining R19.7 billion to be recovered beyond the current MYPD6 period.

The True Cost Impact Goes Beyond the Headline Rate

C&I finance teams should not model the 8.76% in isolation. The approved tariffs do not yet include fixed charges, meaning the total impact on electricity bills will exceed the headline percentage. Under Eskom's Retail Tariff Plan, approved by NERSA in 2025, the utility was authorised to introduce time-of-use charges, fixed capacity charges, and network and service charges, all phased in over three years.

The fixed portion of the Generation Capacity Charge increases from 20% in FY25/26 to 30% in FY26/27, with the remaining 70% recovered through the energy charge. Service and administration charges follow a similar pattern, rising from 33.33% to 66.66% in FY26/27. This structural shift means that even businesses that cut consumption will not escape proportionally higher bills — a critical consideration for any demand-side management strategy.

The Long-Term Tariff Trajectory: A Decade of Above-Inflation Increases

This is not an isolated event. In recent years, tariff increases have been relentless: 15.63% in 2021/22, 9.61% in 2022/23, 18.7% in 2023/24, 12.7% in 2024/25 and 12.74% in 2025/26. Between 2007 and 2024, Eskom tariffs rose by about 937% against general inflation of 155% over the same period — meaning electricity has become roughly six times more expensive in real terms.

For customers supplied electricity by municipalities, the tariff increases could be even higher as municipalities decide on hikes based on their own budgetary considerations. C&I users in metros — already paying municipal markups on top of the Eskom bulk rate — face a compounding cost stack that NERSA's 8.76% approval only partially reflects.

The compound effect of the 2026/27 and 2027/28 increases is an 18.36% rise in Eskom tariffs over two years — before fixed charge escalations and municipal markups are factored in.

What This Means for C&I Property Owners and Operators

The tariff approval crystallises what energy-aware CFOs and facilities managers already suspected: grid electricity is structurally more expensive, with no regulatory relief in sight. The NERSA error that triggered this redetermination — and the R19.7 billion still to be recovered in future price applications — signals ongoing above-inflation pressure well beyond 2027/28.

• PPA and lease-funded solar now delivers a more compelling arbitrage: a fixed or CPI-linked solar tariff rate is insulated from Eskom's regulatory volatility. As grid tariffs escalate, the savings margin on a PPA widens automatically over a 10–20 year agreement.
• BESS sizing decisions need to reflect the new fixed-charge reality. With the Generation Capacity Charge fixed component rising to 30% in FY26/27, demand charge management via battery storage becomes a direct line-item saving — not just a load-shedding hedge.
• Time-of-use optimisation is increasingly material for Megaflex and Miniflex C&I customers. As fixed charges grow, TOU peak-period avoidance via solar generation and battery dispatch delivers compounding rand-value savings.
• Municipal customers face a July 2026 crunch. Tenants and property owners on municipal tariffs have a narrow window before the 9.01% increase flows through to their accounts — making Q1/Q2 2026 an optimal time to lock in a solar or BESS feasibility assessment.

The Commercial Case Has Never Been Stronger

Every NERSA tariff approval cycle reinforces the same investment thesis: on-site generation via commercial solar — funded through a zero-capex PPA or operating lease — converts a variable, regulator-controlled grid cost into a predictable, contractually capped energy expense. With two confirmed above-inflation increases now locked in through March 2028, and further recovery tranches to follow, the payback calculus for C&I solar and BESS shifts decisively in the investor's favour.

For property owners, facilities managers, and CFOs who have been deferring a feasibility assessment, the 10 March NERSA approval is a concrete trigger to act. The grid will not get cheaper.