Eskom, South Africa’s indebted power utility, has won a High Court decision against the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, which had blocked the utility from recovering R27 billion in costs in the 2019 financial year, company spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said.
The power company can now file a new application to recover the costs.
Reuters reported that the court found that Nersa's treatment of coal and employee costs resulted in the deduction of billions of rands from Eskom's projected revenue.
Decisions taken by Nersa were "procedurally unfair, irrational and unreasonable", according to court documents, Reuters reported.
Eskom has a debt burden of more than R454 billion.
It applied to Nersa to implement electricity tariff hikes of 16.6% and 16.7% over the next two years, but Nersa only granted Eskom increases of 8.1% and 5.2% - a decision which is currently disputed in the courts.