Only 11% of Alex’s City Power customers pay for their electricity… and it used to be far worse

City Power says Alexandra Service Delivery Centre’s (SDC) revenue collection rate has increased from 4% to 11%.

The collection rate was at 4% when City Power began a smart meter installation project and has seen an upswing after cut-off operations and the removal of illegal connections in the area.

Collection initiatives

City Power says its ongoing revenue collection initiatives include auditing and installing smart meters across Alexandra and other areas.

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The city’s smart meters programme ensures that unmetered customers, especially in non-affluent areas, have smart meters and can purchase electricity. The programme has encouraged customers to install pre-paid meters.

“The installation of these smart pre-paid meters will curb the high rate of the non-payment culture in many areas which are currently not paying across the City of Johannesburg,” said spokesperson Isaac Mangena.

Revenue performance

Mangena said City Power recorded R9 billion in customer debt as of 12 June 2024.

“Our overall performance for Quarter 4 is 86.37%, with the year-to-date performance reaching which is at 77.27%. This is the highest for the entity in the last five years.”

City Power is currently doing audits, resetting, and installing smart pre-paid meters in preparation for token ID (TID) rollover.

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“This process is important as customers will no longer be able to buy current electricity recharge units in November 2024 as the available numbers come to an end,” he said.

‘Meter installations event’

City Power rescheduled the Alexandra meter installations event from Tuesday to Thursday this week due to a conflict with ward councillors’ schedules.