A resident’s decision to switch to solar power has created another bizarre scene with City Power.
Willem Deffue from Discovery decided eight months ago to replace the collapsing roof of his residence in Barkly Avenue.
Deffue had an overhead electricity connection to his old collapsing roof, and this needed to be removed before the contractor could remove the old tiles and trusses.
He requested City Power by telephone and later also by e-mail to come out and remove or at least switch off the electricity connected to this overhead cables.
After about three days the contractor said that he could not wait any longer. He disconnected the cables and left it resting on the walls of the house while they continued to remove the old roof.
Early on the next Thursday morning before the contractor started working Deffue heard a noise and the electricity in the flat, where he and his son were living while the work on the roof was in progress, went out.
The overhead electricity cables got caught on a large truck that drove past in the street and were ripped from the roof. Deffue and his son went outside to make sure the cables were safe and out of the way.
Although they were planning to install a partial solar electricity system once the alterations to the house have been done, they had no alternative but to do this sooner. They bought solar panels, solar chargers, cables, battery bank and the pure sine wave inverter and started with the project. Within a day the conversion was up and running.
In the meanwhile the roof was finished, the alterations to the interior of the house were completed and the house was running on solar power.
Deffue tells in his own words of his woes that followed.
“Every month since the electricity cables were ripped out I have had problems. When the electricity meter readers come, I show them that the meter is not connected anymore and they read it. But when I get my tax invoice from City of Johannesburg, it reflects an estimated reading,” says Deffue.
“The actual reading on my meter is 47929 but the estimated reading on the invoice is 53091.094. So according to City Power the estimated consumption at my residence has been 5162kWh in the last six months since my electricity was disconnected.
“I have contacted City Power about this numerous times, but nothing was done to rectify it. In the meantime I settle my account every month on time and try to get City Power to realise their mistake, but to no avail,” says the disgruntled Deffue.
“Why should I pay for falsified readings that are given through by City Power’s incompetent contractors who are supposed to collect the actual readings?” asks Deffue.
