The City of Cape Town could be flouting the energy regulator Nersa’s guidelines.

The municipality has imposed a 17.6% increase despite the regulator setting the increase at 15.1%. It further adds that a municipality is not allowed to charge its customers any other electricity tariff other than the one it approves.

But Mayco member for Energy Beverly van Reenen insists that they have acted legally. She argues that the City council gave  approval after a public participation process and that the tariff guideline method was ruled unlawfully by the courts. She says they if the metro was to follow Nersa’s guidelines, it would run at a loss of about R500 million.

The Good Party has since lodged a complaint with Nersa over the City’s astronomical increase. Nersa says it investigate the complaint in line with its dispute resolution procedure to establish whether the City of Cape Town is in breach of a section in the Electricity Regulation Act.