Cape Town – The clock is ticking for more than 700 000 prepaid meters to be updated by next year and the City has reached the halfway mark.
By February, more than 38 areas in the metro’s prepaid meter area had been upgraded with software upgrades and around 300 000 were updated.
In May, the City reported that 48 areas have been reached and the remaining 26 areas would be completed in the coming months.
This week, Mayco member for Energy, Beverley van Reenen said Eskom also had a responsibility.
“Note there are customers directly supplied by Eskom with Eskom meters,” Van Reenen explained. “Eskom is managing that process and the City is managing the customers directly suplied by the City.”
She said the City had 570 000 prepaid meters.
“The City is halfway through.”
Ekom’s media desk told Weekend Argus they were preparing to comment on the situation after being contacted earlier this week.
In 2021, Eskom announced nationally that prepaid meters had to be updated.
According to the City of Cape Town, all prepaid metering software in South Africa had to be updated and if this was not done, customers would not be able to recharge their meters with new tokens and would be left without a power supply.
The City said customers would receive two update codes with their purchase when their time comes.
Customers in the following areas are able to update their electricity meters as of May 1 to May 31: Bergvliet, Constantia, Diep River, Hout Bay, Plumstead and Wynberg.
Last month, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) called for the overall National Treasury debt relief package and called on time to be spent equally in processing prepaid meters in various municipalities.
“The implementation of pre-paid meters requires at least a three-year time-frame considering that capital projects of this nature require finance, project plans, supply chain management including contracting, and implementation,” they said.
“Municipalities also need to invest time in educating communities about prepaid meters and to gain acceptance, before they are rolled out.
“Another condition requires municipalities to develop cost reflective tariffs which entails developing reliable data sets, updating the asset register as well as cost of supply studies, all of which takes time.”
According to a 2023 article by Infrastructure news, SALGA said there was over 3 million prepaid meters managed by municipalities and 7 million managed by Eskom nationally.