City Power increases prepaid tariffs
City Power increased the residential prepaid tariffs by 14.59% which is also the NERSA guideline increase.
Customers consuming 350kWh per month will therefore pay R75.61 more for the same 350kWh. This is because the total charge increased from R518.32 to R593.92 VAT Excl.
Customers consuming 350kWh per month or less are paying R1.6969/kWh compared to R1.4809/kWh for the previous financial year.
City Power Prepaid Tariff is based on the inclining block tariff methodology as prescribed by NERSA.
The tariff applicable increases as the actual monthly consumption exceed the respective threshold for block 1, block 2 and block 3 of 350kWh, 500kWh and any usage above 500kWh.
To simplify it we will use an example of our customer Mandisa Maseko from Mondeor.
Maseko consumes 5000kWh per month. Last financial year she used to pay R773.12 for the same 500kWh.
From July she will therefore pay R885.90, which is an extra R112.78 for the same 500kWh.
Maseko, like other customers consuming 500kWh per month or less are paying an average of R1.7718/kWh compared to R1.5462/kWh for the previous financial year.
Let say for instance at the beginning of one month Maseko decides to buy 350kWh of electricity, she will pay R592.93 for it.
However, should Mme Maseko run out of electricity in the middle of the month, and would like to buy further 350kWh Mme Maseko will pay R735.57.
This is because the Mme-Maseko will be buying at block 2 and block 3 tariffs which are higher due to the inclining block tariff methodology whereby customer pays more when they consume more.
When running out of electricity before the end of the calender month, Maseko and other customers are advised to only buy enough electricity to sustain them until the end of the month, in so doing they can limit the usage of electricity.
For example, if Maseko estimated her consumption that month and anticipated that she may need 450kWh for a month, she could buy only 350kWh at the beginning of the month for R593.92, depending on when in the month she runs out of electricity she should buy a further 50-100kWh for a further R97.32-R194.65 by limiting monthly usage to less than 500kWh customers can save in cost.
Tariffs are increased annually and consider factors that include increase allowed to Eskom as a bulk supplier, and inflationary adjustments to City Power operating cost
As a prepaid customer, Maseko does not adequately contribute to the network availability cost i.e. for the maintenance of electricity infrastructure, to ensure electricity availability on demand. City Power must make sure that electricity is available when a customer switches on the lights.
