Lack of meters costing millions

Consumers getting away with free electricity but metro drags feet

THERE is 18 million kW/h of electricity being used in Nelson Mandela Bay for which customers are not being charged by the metro, according to Amat, the company hired by the municipality to curb electricity losses.

This, if properly billed, could plough between R200-million and R1-billion back into the city’s coffers.

However, to do this, the municipality had to stick to its contractual agreement to install 5 000 new electricity meters per month, and charge customers for the past three years that they had not been paying, the company said.

The news comes as the metro’s electricity and energy department reported that it lost R261-million between July and March due to theft and technical losses.

Presenting the second phase by Amat and its partner Netelek to strategically reduce electricity losses, Netelek’s Chris Bosch said that to significantly curb losses, the metro had to stick to its contractual agreement to install the new meters.

He was speaking at Friday’s infrastructure, engineering and energy portfolio committee meeting.

When the amendment to the metro’s original agreement with Amat was signed in December, the city agreed to supply 5 000 new meters per month.

To date, only about 350 had been received by the company, Bosch said.

“There are between 25 000 and 30 000 prepaid meters that are receiving electricity. The municipality knows about [them] but they are not [properly] metered,” he said.

“That’s an average of R350 per meter that you can collect from 30 000 electricity consumers who are using [electricity] but are not paying for it.

“We started off in February. Two hundred smart meters have been installed and are operational on the system.

“Out of only about 200 meters that have been deployed to date, 197 000kW/h extra power [being used for free] has been found monthly.

“We are looking for 18 million kW/h per month extra; that’s what is missing.

“In only 200 meters, we have found 1% of what there is to be found. That 1% equates to R10-million,” he said.

Amat was appointed on a three-year contract with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. Its second year is almost up and the metro has been battling to find the savings in its finances.

According to Bosch, they could have saved the metro millions of rands if the meters had been installed as per the agreement. “From the 200 meters, we have identified R10-million that the municipality can start invoicing customers for.

“There could be anything from R200-million to R1-billion that is waiting to be collected that can come into the municipality’s coffers,” Bosch said.

“Every month that passes and we haven’t received meters, you retard your own revenue coming in.”

He said that with the meters installed, the company would ensure all the information was available to the metro, and any tampering could be easily detected.

Amat project manager Mthu Ntlangani said the company had installed more than 200 meters in Uitenhage’s KwaNobuhle, where there had been no meters at all but people were using electricity.

Earlier this month, the metro’s acting head of electricity and energy, Peter Neilson, said the municipality had budgeted R5-million for new meters.

The aim was to install 20 000 new meters by the end of next month.

Councillors at Friday’s meeting urged the municipality to play its part.

Portfolio committee chairman Andile Mfunda said the project was important and had to be fruitful for the city.