Eskom ups profit on tariffs

Johannesburg - Power utility Eskom on Monday reported a net profit of R8.4bn for the year.

Eskom said the latest profit was made on revenue of R91.4bn, an increase of 29% from 2010. In 2010, Eskom made a net profit of R3.6bn.
 
The past two years of profit have been a remarkable turnaround for a company that made a loss of R9.6bn in the 2009 financial year.

Eskom CEO Brian Dames said the revenue growth was driven by tariff increases and that the profit had been reinvested in Eskom.

“We cannot continue successfully with our massive build programme if we are not as profitable as this. The total interest repayments on our debt that we have incurred for our build programme is still exceeding net profit,” he said.

Eskom has a capital expenditure programme of R450bn, and interest and debt repayments in the 2011 financial year were about R18bn.

“Eskom is well on track to be financially sustainable. That is driven extensively by the fact that we now have tariffs moving towards cost-reflective rates ... allowing us to invest back into the business,” said Dames.

Eskom was granted an annual increase in power tariffs of around 25%  for three years and is likely to apply for two more hikes in this range.

Cash-strapped Eskom has been struggling to raise all the R450bn it needs to build new power plants over the next six years to avoid a repeat of a crisis which forced mines and smelters to shut for days in early 2008 and cost South Africa billions in lost output.

Dames said Eskom had secured more than 70% of its funding requirements, and hoped to find the remainder in the course of the current financial year. He said the utility was on track to add another 12 000 MW to the grid by 2019, which should temporarily relieve tight supplies in the world’s top producer of platinum.