EMM addresses resident’s concern

Editor – I have recently receive a letter from the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) which states that they are going to replace all electricity meters in Bedfordview, especially the so-called old 3-phase meters with one combined meter to make it easier for the meter readers and for improved service, in their words.

They have recently replaced all three meters at my premises.

I smelt a rat and went to investigate. I found this is a smoke screen to charge those who have an address and an ID, whom are the only ones paying, to subsidise the millions who are not paying.

From January 1, 2015, the residents in Bedfordview will pay R 4,56 per unit of electricity above 700 units used.

So, where as up to now we had three separate meters and most will never reach the 700 units limit.

From January 1 you will have one meter which will add your three meters together, so that nearly every resident in Bedfordview will pay for most of their electricity usage at R4,56 per unit, to R1,24 at this moment. That comes to an increase of 400 percent.

I hope every resident who reads this letter will react to it, remember in July 2015 we are facing another 26 percent hike.

ANONYMOUS

The spokesperson for Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) responds:

Bedfordview historically, has many 3-phase electricity connections, possibly as a result of the size of some of the properties. These 3-phase connections are measured either by:

Method 1: 3 individual 1-phase meters, or

Method 2: 1 individual 3-phase meter.

Regardless of whether methods 1, or 2 are used, the end result of kilowatt-hour consumption remains exactly the same. The municipality prefers to have one meter, rather than three.

This relates to perfectly logical sentiments, such as one meter to maintain, one meter to read, three times less opportunity for a meter reading to be incorrectly recorded, thereby three times less chance of a customer being inconvenienced by an incorrect bill, and so forth.

That said, the EMM is aware of the billing system error mentioned by the reader, in terms of which the three individual meter readings are being billed separately, for a few EMM customers. This error is being addressed and the correction will be implemented soon.

The high tariff mentioned is part of the EMM Tariff A (IBT), or the inclining block tariff, which is a subsidised tariff for any vulnerable EMM resident. These vulnerable customers can live anywhere in the EMM, even in Bedfordview. The tariff has ever-increasing blocks, as indicated below. Anybody using less than 700 units per month, will find this a beneficial tariff. When the 700 unit mark is crossed, the tariff has a punishing rate of R4,00 per unit, plus VAT, signalling to a user to change tariffs to Tariff B, also copied below. This holds true for both meter configurations.

TARIFF A (VAT excl) – for lower end users: Block (1-600 kWh) R0.83,87, Block (>600 to <=700 kWh) R1.42,55, Block (>700 kWh) R4.00,00.

TARIFF B (VAT excl) – for higher end users: A fixed charge, whether electricity is consumed or not, per month, per point of supply, excluding prepayment metering customers. The amount is charged once per month only per point of supply, independent of whether it is a single phase or three phase supply connection point. R27.25 Energy Charge (R/kWh) summer and winter R1.27.