Photo by: Duane Daws
Power utility Eskom is making progress with the roll-out of smart electricity meters in Sandton and Midrand, with 5 932 meters installed in the first three months of this year.
Eskom has made a strategic decision to convert all of its conventionally billed customers to prepaid meters, a project it believes will support the utility’s financial stability efforts.
Customers will also benefit from improved reliability, reduction of public safety incidents, better management of energy consumption and the elimination of billing errors.
Eskom plans to have smart meters installed at the premises of all 32 885 of its domestic customers in Sandton and Midrand by the end of the 2016/17 financial year.
The conversion of the smart meters to prepaid will resume in July, once Eskom has upgraded its online vending system.
Meanwhile, Eskom has installed more than 40 000 split prepaid meters in Soweto, 13 000 of which have been converted to prepaid mode.
The utility has already improved its revenue collection in Soweto by R33.63-million, as a result of the installation of the split prepaid meters.