Electricity price increases kick in

South African residents can expect to pay between R245 and R333 more per month on electricity from today, 1 July 2025, depending on the city in which they live.

While electricity price hikes for Eskom direct customers started on 1 April 2025, municipal electricity price hikes take effect each year on 1 July 2025.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) approved an 11.32% increase in Eskom’s bulk electricity prices for municipalities in March 2025.

However, municipalities must consider their own costs when determining the price hikes they impose on their customers, and can deviate from the 11.32% based on cost-of-supply studies.

After receiving backlash from organisations like Afriforum regarding municipal price hikes in 2024/25, Nersa warned municipalities in late April that they must submit their cost-of-supply studies.

Last year, Afriforum launched legal action to block municipalities from implementing price hikes after Nersa failed to enforce the cost-of-supply study requirement.

This year, it warned municipalities that failure to comply would result in no adjustment to the respective municipal provider’s electricity tariffs for the 2025/26 financial year.

“All tariff applications are required to be supported by a cost of supply study,” the regulator stated.

“Tariff applications that are supported by cost of supply studies must be submitted to Nersa by 30 April 2025. This will facilitate processing and approval in time for the 1 July 2025 implementation date.”

It noted that failing to apply for the approval of electricity tariff adjustments with Nersa constitutes a breach of licence conditions and violates the Electricity Regulation Act (ERA) provisions.

“Section 15 of the ERA prevents any licensee from charging a tariff that is not approved by the Regulator,” it said.

The South African Property Owners Association recently highlighted that most large municipalities had confirmed plans to increase their tariffs by more than Eskom’s bulk hike of 11.32%.

Several of them wrongly claimed that their electricity hikes were in line with Eskom’s 12.74% increase. However, this only applies to Eskom direct customers.

Special Nersa executive committee meeting on 20 June 2025 approved most of the tariff applications, with various specific conditions and recommendations for each.

The general outcome for most applications was approval of tariffs based on the cost of supply study results or as recommended in the tariff analysis sheet, for implementation on 1 July 2025.

A R245 to R333 per month price hike

Nelspruit residents are receiving the highest municipal electricity price hike of South Africa’s major metros, with prices increasing by an average of 13% from 1 July 2025.

This means that the municipality’s residents will pay roughly R297 more per month, based on Eskom’s average monthly household consumption figure of 656kWh.

Residents in Ekurhuleni will be the second-hardest hit. The metro is implementing a 13.40% price hike for the 2025/26 financial year, meaning residents will pay roughly R330 more monthly.

The Gqeberha Municipality will implement a 12.88% price hike from 1 July 2025. These residents will pay roughly R308 more per month.

Cape Town’s approved electricity price hike for the upcoming financial year is 12.80%, meaning residents consuming 656kWh per month will pay roughly R334 more from 1 July 2025.

However, the metro often implements unapproved, lower tariff adjustments for its residents, and has proposed an increase of just 2%.

People living in East London will be hit by a 12.74% price hike from 1 July 2025, which equates to an average monthly increase of R316.

Durban’s eThekwini Municipality approved a 12.72% electricity price hike from 1 July 2025, meaning residents will pay around R280 more per month.

Bloemfontein’s electricity tariffs differ between summer and winter. The municipality approved a 12.40% electricity price hike from 1 July 2025.

Residents in Bloemfontein will pay approximately R247 more per month in summer and R313 more per month in winter.

The City of Johannesburg approved an average increase of 12.41%. Johannesburg residents supplied by City Power will pay around R273 more per month from 1 July 2025.

Polokwane will implement electricity tariff increases in line with Eskom’s bulk increase, hiking prices by 11.32%. This equates to roughly R260 more per month for residents consuming 656kWh.

Ekurhuleni’s prices were already relatively high, and despite implementing a lower increase than some other metros, its customers will pay nearly as much more per month as those in Cape Town.

Customers in Ekurhuleni will pay around R330 more per month from 1 July, based on Eskom’s average monthly household consumption figure.

The City of Tshwane will increase prices by 10.20% from 1 July 2025, meaning residents in pretoria will pay around R246 more per month.

The table below shows how much more residents in some of South Africa’s largest metros will pay for electricity per month from 1 July 2025.

We used Eskom’s average household consumption figure of 656kWh for our calculations.