The City of Ekurhuleni acknowledges the crucial role that electricity sellers play in reselling electricity to customers, primarily in apartment complexes, group housing developments, security estates, and sectional title properties but overcharging is discouraged.
Regulatory structure
According to the city’s electricity supply by-laws, when there is a bulk supply of electricity to the properties mentioned above, each buyer must be metered through a submeter that has been approved by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).
The rate that applies per kWh unit must be at the applicable tariff under the city’s tariffs and cannot be more than what the buyer would have paid if they were a direct customer of the city.
The city’s Tariff B for bulk residential resellers is as follows:
This tariff applies to bulk residential complexes, body corporates, blocks of apartments, and so on that are zoned exclusively for residential use. It also applies to single-phase 230 V or multi-phase 400/230 V connections.
Residential clients with medium and high voltage can use this rate.
The point of supply, which delineates the commercial boundary between the licensee and the customer, is where the metering equipment should ideally be installed for this tariff. After this point, CoE will not be liable for any maintenance of internal service connections, meters, and meter readings.
However, the Electricity Act, Act 4 of 2006, may need supervision for water heating and other associated equipment.
The Electricity Regulation Act and municipal bylaws require resellers to resell electricity to end consumers by the by-laws. Only in cases where a bulk meter placed to measure the overall consumption of the bulk residential complex has been approved and installed will the CoE apply the residential reseller’s price.
Bulk residential: Resellers of a bulk residential complex that buy electricity (on RR.1 and RR1.1 or RR.2 and RR.2.1) only for resale to the residential dwelling units on the same premises at the applicable prescribed tariffs (as per R.1. and R.3) may charge the appropriate charge relating to the sub-metering type as per R.1.
These resellers may include bulk residential complexes, body corporates, blocks of flats, or the authorised reselling agent.
Customers who switch to a prepayment meter and those who establish a new connection with a prepayment meter will be given a one-time 40 kWh allotment in the meter to give them time to buy a fresh prepaid token.
With the first financial transaction, this allocation will be recovered and recorded as an arrear amount on the prepayment meter account.
Regulations established by NERSA
An apartment building’s property owner must work with a service provider to handle billing, connections, and complaint handling when they want to offer power to a residential unit. This service provider must be under contract with the body corporate of the apartment building and purchase electricity on the body corporate’s behalf from a licenced distributor.
The body corporate itself needs to communicate directly with the authorised electricity distributor.
An apartment building owner who intends to resell electricity to residential residents will be responsible for handling bills, connections, and complaints. Tenants will be supplied with electricity, which will be bought from a licenced distributor. Either the property or the owner will be named on the licence agreement with the distributor.
In most cases, a body corporate assigns invoicing, connections, and complaint handling to a service provider when it plans to offer power to individual residential homes inside a complex. Then, under a contract with the body corporate, the service provider buys power from a licenced distributor on the latter’s behalf.
When a landowner intends to resell power to shops in a shopping mall or a complex of apartments. The property owner will need to assign invoicing, connections, and complaint resolution to a service provider to make this easier. Under the terms of their agreement with the property owner, this service provider will buy power from a licenced distributor.
The City of Ekurhuleni prohibits unlawful connections, meter bypassing, and token bridging because they jeopardise public safety, service dependability, and economic stability in addition to compromising utility financial integrity. Frequent power outages caused by illegal connections and electricity theft put a burden on the city’s resources and caused legal electricity consumers to wait for service. Many continue to maintain illicit contacts despite the obvious risks.
Residents are encouraged to report any illegal connection or suspicion of illegal connection activities through the municipal call centre on 086 054 3000.
