Emfuleni Councilors of all political parties received training last week on consumer electricity cost concerns around the municipality’s smart meter project – set for a massive expansion in the coming months.
BXC smart meter service provider Project Manager Dawid Dirks also says that ELM’s tariff structure compared favourably to other municipalities.
“Another myth is that BXC is paid for its services from electricity rates thus making power more expensive – this is also absolutely false,” said Dirks.
Dirks added that BXC – now a fully South African-owned and BEE Level One company – was not paid from electricity tariffs but from a flat rate per smart meter installed.
Executive Mayor Sipho Radebe, ELM Speaker Sibongile Soxusa, Chief Whip Silver Jantjie and Municipal Manager April Ntuli, attended the training and information session.
Public Works MMC Tumi Mochawe also attended and said the smart meter programme would be rolled out in terms of a formal ELM Council Resolution and Councilors were duty-bound to support it.
The first target area for renewed smart meter installations was not revealed and a stretch target date of sometime in July was provided.
Councilors, along with business leaders, will also be given more specialised training on smart meter issues with their Ward Committees before the installation process reaches their wards and to inform planned pubic participation meetings on smart meters, said Dirks.
The expansion drive, with at least 12 000 new electricity and 5 000 water smart meters, is an integral part of ELM’s financial turn-around plan with National Treasury, which demands smart meters for paying ELM’s huge R7 billion Eskom debt.
Councilors will also be expected to sign a strict Code of Conduct on smart meters along with BXC staff and ELM personnel involved to ensure that resident’s rights to privacy and security are respected at all times.
A new feature added to the new campaign will be an independent Whistle-blower programme designed to educate and prevent smart meter by-passing after smart more meter installations – a key revenue risk management factor to curb power theft and infrastructure vandalism.
Co-operation mechanisms will be set up with both business organisations and security companies to help secure not only installation processes against crime.
Councilors and their Ward Committees will also be expected to function as Observers within their wards whilst BXC is installed in their areas, said sources.
