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Mar 30, 2024

City Power set to start normalisation of metres in Alex

City Power has announced that it is ready to start with the normalisation of meters across Alexandra to ensure residents pay for the electricity they use. This was disclosed by the City of

City Power has announced that it is ready to start with the normalisation of meters across Alexandra to ensure residents pay for the electricity they use.

This was disclosed by the City of Johannesburg power entity spokesperson Isaac Mangena who said several engagements had taken place with the councillors in all the wards of the township, along with the residents, with the last one scheduled for August 26.

Mangena said the feeling from all the meetings held so far was that the majority of the residents were willing to pay for electricity services and therefore the programme to normalise the meters will soon get underway and will involve the auditing, replacement, and resetting of smart pre-paid meters across the township.

According to Mangena, most of the meters in Alexandra are bypassed, vandalised, bridged, or removed and City Power will replace all the meters for free for now, with the entity also working towards meeting the November 2024 token identifier rollout.

The token identifier rollout means that all the old meters will cease to accept the recharge vouchers in November next year, as the available numbers come to an end and only reprogrammed, or new token identifier-compliant smart meters will be compatible to accept the new units.

The metering programme will start with the houses on the east of the Jukskei River on August 28 in the Far East Bank, East Bank, West Bank, and Tsutsumani Village, with 5 000 meters available for the first batch of installations which will cover rezoned stands with double storey flatlets and backyard rooms.

In the old Alexandra, the programme will, in the beginning, target businesses, including spaza shops and taverns. “We have already engaged councillors in those wards and they have compiled the list of businesses in their wards to be targeted for meter installations so that they pay for electricity,” Mangena said.

New network installation customers will be metered immediately to ensure the vending of electricity happens, Mangena said, adding that a lot of work has already been done by City Power as promised, including the increasing of capacity on some distributors from the Alexandra substation by separating some of the load to Far East Bank and by connecting some residents to the Westfield substation.More than R4m has already been spent in this regard with some of the load already transferred and linked to Westfield. “We have also started with the installation of solar high mast lights to ensure visibility and safety of residents during load-shedding, and we will be rolling out solar water geysers in Alexandra among other non-affluent areas, to relieve the pressure and costs for customers,” Mangena said.

He said the city had programmes to assist indigent residents who are not able to afford electricity or any other services, and ‘we encourage all those affected to visit the city’s regional offices’.

Mangena welcomed the commitment by most residents to pay for their electricity usage, saying that currently, only 4% of the residents of Alexandra pay for their electricity consumption.

The entity has spent millions of rands repairing, maintaining, and replacing electricity infrastructure such as mini-substations, transformers and cables that blew up and burnt or stolen in the township.

He said the problems in the township are compounded by the rampant vandalism, cable theft, and illegal connections and the mushrooming of backyard rooms has also exacerbated the situation as the demand way exceeded the available electricity capacity built for Alexandra.

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