South Africa’s electricity landscape is undergoing rapid change. The state-owned monopoly utility, historically dependent on the country’s until recently low-cost coal supplies is now in financial and supply-side crisis, subject to growing indebtedness and downgraded to non-investment grade or ‘junk’ status.
South Africa has gone from one of the world’s cheapest electricity generators in the early 2000s to a 270% increase in electricity tariffs by 2015, with further increases predicted in the future.