City Power to nail users by the clock

Mercialene Buffel who is new to the city, says she is surprised that such a developed metro faces so many power outages. Photo: Timothy Bernard

Mercialene Buffel who is new to the city, says she is surprised that such a developed metro faces so many power outages. Photo: Timothy Bernard

Published Feb 25, 2015

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Johannesburg - Want to save money? Don’t cook, bath, wash dishes, watch TV or charge your phone between 7am and 10am and 6pm and 9pm on weekdays.

City Power has announced it will implement a time-of-use tariff system from July 1 to reduce pressure on the grid and pass savings on to residential customers.

City Power’s managing director Sicelo Xulu said on Tuesday the National Electricity Regulator of SA had granted its approval to implement the system that would allow it to price electricity at different rates during the week to encourage off-peak consumption.

The objective is to improve the continuity of supply. This time-differentiated system was previously only available to large power users. In terms of the regulated pricing strategy, City Power will charge a low tariff during off-peak hours and a premium during peak periods.

“Through the implementation of this system, City Power and the City of Joburg seek to safeguard the security of our supply by driving heavy use of power to off-peak periods. The off-peak price will be lower than the current flat rates providing an incentive to consumers,” said Xulu.

“We are trying to reward residents for changing their usage patterns, while at the same time, ensuring security of supply by lessening the pressure on the grid. Load shedding is a fact of life that we have to contend with for the foreseeable future, and we need to explore any conceivable solutions to ensure we keep the lights on,” said Xulu.

He added this would bring noticeable savings provided people amended their usage patterns. The spike during peak times, he said, was largely caused by hot water consumption and cooking between 5.30pm and 8.30pm.

He encouraged consumers to consider alternative methods of heating and cooking during peak periods, such as switching to gas or supporting City Power’s ripple control installation programme, which allowed the company to switch off geysers during peak periods remotely.

Xulu said an educational drive would be undertaken to educate consumers about the new system before it was implemented.

Eskom is expected to increase its tariffs by more than 8 percent in the next four years to fund its infrastructure backlog.

“By opting for alternative energy solutions and changing their usage patterns, consumers will be insulating themselves from the effects of these increases and the threat of load shedding,” Xulu said.

Earlier this month, City Power announced plans to get off Eskom’s load-shedding grid by June.

It is to use electricity from the Kelvin power station, which sells power to City Power which, in turn, offers it to Eskom when the national utility is in trouble.

Tests are also being done on smart meters. The city has installed 50 000 in households so far, which can be used to automatically cut customers’ consumption remotely, by the percentage Eskom needs, without customers even realising it.

Another big step towards mitigating load shedding is co-operating with big companies that have generators and those that produce their own electricity from by-products.

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The Star

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