Estate Living Magazine Connection - Issue 43 July 2019 | Page 36

I N V E S T
&
D E V E L O P
BRINGING THE CASE
FOR PREPAID
ELECTRICITY
TO LIGHT
Hardly a day goes by without the future of South Africa’s power grid
making front-page news. Keeping the lights on, and sustainably, is
a favourite topic around the dinner table, whether you live in Port
Elizabeth or Pearl Valley.
To combat this, Eskom is putting in place a target to install more than
26,000 prepaid electricity meters in Soweto by March 2020. The
City of Johannesburg has already credited prepaid meters with a
10% decline in illegal electricity connections.
As our national power utility grapples with recovering the debt
owed to it by several municipalities, prepaid electricity meters have
been touted as the silver bullet.
According to Cooperative Governance Minister Zweli Mkhize,
Eskom was owed more than R24 billion by the end of December –
R18 billion of that from unpaid electricity bills originating in Soweto
alone.
Not only do these prepaid meters reduce the debt owed to Eskom
by municipalities, improving cash flow and reducing network
maintenance costs, their introduction also benefits Eskom’s
customers directly in the form of improved services, accurate
charges and reduced costs.
Prepaid meters can actually help consumers better manage their