City Power has revealed that just 1 600 customers, about 4% of Alexandra’s 40 000 registered electricity customers, are actively purchasing and paying for electricity.

The disclosure came during the first in a series of business customer engagements held in Alexandra on June 2, as part of City Power’s Revenue Enhancement Programme.

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The figure underscores a massive gap between electricity consumption and revenue collection. According to the utility’s spokesperson, this gap continues to put pressure on the network.

“The figure also highlights a growing mismatch between the level of electricity being consumed and the revenue being collected,” Mangena said.

“In many cases, properties accommodate multiple households, rental units, and businesses that rely heavily on electricity-intensive equipment. This places substantial strain on the network while contributing little or no revenue towards its upkeep,” he added.

The strain caused by high consumption and low revenue collection necessitated City Power’s engagement with business owners in Alexandra.

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This engagement was to strengthen customer relations, improve compliance, and ensure the long-term sustainability of the electricity network.

During the engagement, City Power revealed plans to roll out a compliance and normalisation programme in Alexandra soon.

“Teams will conduct street-by-street audits to verify electricity consumption, assess metering requirements, install smart meters where necessary, and ensure customers are correctly billed and operating within approved electricity supply parameters,” Mangena said.

This comes on the back of increasing electricity use due to the proliferation of backyard rental accommodation, spaza shops, salons, restaurants, workshops, and other small businesses operating from former residential properties.

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The vast majority of these users, according to City Power, are not contributing to the cost of supply.

“While these developments contribute positively to local economies, they also create additional pressure on infrastructure that was not originally designed to support commercial-scale electricity consumption.”

City Power intends to appropriately meter such properties and place them on the correct tariff structures to ensure fair billing, proper network planning, and long-term sustainability.

Notably, most spaza shop owners were not present at the meeting. Ward 116 councillor Adolph Marema said his ward alone has about 260 businesses, but he could only recognise 20 people from the ward in attendance.

He noted that very few businesses actually pay for electricity. “Businesses must play their role, no matter how small they are. They must ensure that we collect enough revenue for the services they utilise,” Marema said.

City Power stressed that properties evolving into income-generating enterprises must be correctly metered and billed to ensure fair contributions and proper network planning.

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