At SAETA’s request, Meridian Economics provided comments on NERSA’s latest draft Trading Rules, focusing on the tariffs and charges levied on customers who buy power through traders. We argue these matters are already governed by the Wheeling Rules and existing tariff methodologies, and that duplicating them in the Trading Rules (alongside volume restrictions and eligibility limits) would entrench distributors’ monopoly position, undermine fair competition and invite legal challenge. Instead, we set out how fair competition and the investment signals needed for flexible generation can be achieved by implementing the existing Wheeling Rules, fixing long-standing tariff structuring issues, and expediting the SAWEM capacity mechanism.
Resources