Around 95 percent (or more) of the existing meter installation base comprises the old analogue meters, which don’t know night from day, never mind one hour from the next. So, as long as you use energy, the disk keeps revolving and registering usage.
In order to be able to ascertain at what time and how much energy was used, one would need to install an “intelligent/smart” meter. That is to say, a meter that has a U processor and an internal clock and also has the ability to be interrogated remotely in order to download the information so that an account can be generated. So, a comprehensive retrofit programme would need to take place, and that after the City has gone out to tender for the meters, software and infrastructure to enable all this to happen.
The technology and expertise do not exist in Johannesburg City’s power department, so you can see a few of the challenges in making this broad statement, “we are going to charge time of use”. It is just not possible.
Do you honestly believe that the City has the requisite skills and manpower to accomplish all this in some sort of reasonable time frame? I think not.
Then there is also the fact that some homeowners are starting to install “smart meters” (so that they can monitor and control their own usage). Now imagine that there was a major discrepancy between the City and the owner’s meter and that results in a query. The logistics of resolving the issue are mind blowing, and unless the City grid is privatised, I cannot see this working at all.
It is just a slogan that they will keep trotting out when they come under pressure and have to be seen doing something about the problem. Always bear in mind that the City does not generate power, it only maintains the infrastructure and takes the energy from Eskom and transmits it on to the consumers. We have become so used to unqualified people making populist statements about how to do this and that – and this “time of day use” nonsense is exactly just more of that.
I represent a system from the USA that takes polluted water (no matter how bad) or sea water (of which we have an abundance) and purifies the water to medical-grade drinking water, and then take the resultant “contaminants” and some of the hydrogen from the water and produce a synfuel [a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen] that drives a turbine engine and produces electricity.
Do you think that we can get anyone at Eskom or government to look at the system? The answer is no.
The reason is probably because the system does not have a capital purchase price and you only pay for what you use, so there is not a river of up-front money for hands to grab.
