The Green Building Council of South Africa is the winner in the Community Category of this year's Eskom eta Awards for their Green Street initiative in Cato Manor, Durban.

The Department of Energy has introduced more measures that will incentivise companies to watch their electricity consumption.

Construction has begun on the R24-billion Savanna City lifestyle housing development situated near Orange Farm, 35km outside of Johannesburg.

City Power MD Sicelo Xulu brushes aside doubts that smart metering will solve Johannesburg’s problem of billing estimates, saying the utility will continue to invest in new technologies to reduce inefficiencies.

The South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) welcomes the approval by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) of the 8% annual increase for electricity. 

The National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) has granted power parastatal Eskom an 8% tariff increase over the course of the next five years of the Multi-Year Price Determination period 2013/14 to 2017/18 (MYPD3).

PROVIDER of energy-saving solutions to the market, Rawlyn LED Lights, has assisted voestalpine VAE SA to reduce its annual energy bill significantly

Cape Town renewable energy company Solar Capital won a R13 billion South African energy deal to supply the South African energy grid with electricity generated from a 75 megawatt photovoltaic solar farm being developed in the Northern Cape.

The tariff increase was necessary to maintain revenue as well as to cover operating costs and the financial stability of Eskom.

"Businesses are leaving the zoned business areas and starting to trade in the residential areas illegally to survive," he told a hearing of the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) in Bloemfontein. Boshoff pays millions for his monthly electricity bill from the Mangaung metro.

He said small and medium-size businesses could no longer afford to pay high electricity costs in formal, zoned business areas. Malls and office blocks were starting to empty as businesses were closing down or moving to areas where they could pay residential tariffs. Boshoff said electricity increases of 16 percent per annum over the next five years would cripple South Africa's commercial property market, and specifically the Bloemfontein area further. He said Eskom's proposal did not include the municipalities' increase. "These municipalities are not managing their resources properly and as a result, they need to supplement their income with huge increases in their electricity tariffs to create more income."

Boshoff was supported by Louis Diedericks from Utility Management for Africa, which managed large properties for clients. "The high costs for businesses in central South Africa are not sustainable. You cannot kill the goose who lays the golden egg," Diedericks said.