Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has confirmed that electricity smart meters installed by power utility Eskom are equipped with technology that notifies the utility if the meters are being bypassed.

In response to a Parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Natasha Mazzone, he pointed out that fully-fledged smart meters are installed in Sandton and Midrand, while split meters with communications systems are installed in Soweto.

The fully-fledged smart meters provide a signal when bypassed but then go offline. Staff members are sent out to investigate, as there are no real-time monitoring systems.

The installations in Soweto, meanwhile, only provide a signal if there is tampering with the meter but the system has to be interrogated on a regular basis to check for tampering as there is no real-time monitoring.

The Minister conceded that while the smart meters in Soweto are installed in cubicles, these are continuously vandalised and, in many cases, staff are prevented from repairing faults. This prevents information being sent via the communications network to the system for fraud detection.

There are plans to install a Meter Data Management System that will have full control of the smart meter and provide real-time monitoring.

Such a system will allow the customer to buy electricity online and view their use, as well as enable Eskom to see use patterns and disconnect meters over nonpayment.

ELECTRICITY

Meanwhile, Mazzone also asked the Minister whether Eskom has put any measures in place to address the issue of nonpayment by municipalities.

Eskom indicated to the Department of Public Enterprise that measures have been put in place to address this issue.

In this regard, Eskom has an electricity supply agreement (ESA) with each of the municipalities that it supplies electricity to in bulk. The ESA specifies the terms and conditions and obligations of the parties.

On July 1, 2017, Eskom granted a concession to the municipalities that allows them to pay their bulk electricity account within 30 days from the date that it becomes due and not the previous 15 days. This concession, however, excludes metropolitan municipalities.

The concession was made to allow the municipalities more time to collect their revenue from their customers before they have to pay Eskom.

Should the municipality not pay their account on time, Eskom implements credit control measures that could result in the municipality’s electricity supply being disconnected. The Eskom process also makes provision for municipalities to enter into a repayment plan over a period of time.

Should the municipalities fail to enter into such an agreement or fail to honour the terms of such agreement, Eskom initiates an administrative process in line with the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) before the supply to the municipality can be terminated.

In terms of the ESA, Eskom may disconnect the supply to the municipality completely; however, due to the impact to the customers and the economy, Eskom has opted to only interrupt supply for limited hours of the day.

Municipal customers, customer groupings, business chambers or even the municipality are, however, obtaining interdicts against Eskom that prevents the utility from interrupting the supply and thus from implementing its credit control measures.

An escalation of the debt is very noticeable when this happens, as the municipalities seem to take a payment holiday as soon as the interdict application is successful.

Notwithstanding the above, government continues, through an Inter-Ministerial Task Team chaired by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, to develop and implement plans to increase the capacity of municipalities to collect revenue.