Winter is setting in and households may start to count every cent they spend on electricity.
Others may even start to question whether they are paying the right electricity tariff, or whether they might not be saving if they were to buy electricity from Eskom instead of the City or vice versa.
The City of Ekurhuleni provides electricity in areas where it has been licensed by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to do so. There are other selected areas in Ekurhuleni were Eskom has a licence to provide electricity.
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The City’s electricity tariffs are applicable to those areas where the city is licensed to supply electricity. The tariffs are categorised to fit different circumstances of residents and businesses, such as residents in stand-alone stands, complexes and flats.
The most prevalent tariff for residents is the Inclined Block Rate Tariff (Tariff A IBT).
This tariff is structured into blocks which increase in price according to the monthly consumption of a household.
The first block is for consumption of less than 100kWh a month, which is allocated for free in terms of the City’s free basic electricity policy.
The second block is for consumption between 100kWh and 600kWh where an R1.05,66 tariff is charged.
Those who consume into the next block, which is between 600kWh and 700kWh are charged R1.79,61 per kWh, after which the tariff becomes R5,02 per kWh.
The very high final block acts as a ‘signal’ to higher consuming customers that they are not on the optimal tariff for their level of consumption.
Complexes, body corporates and flats are charged a differently structured tariff called Bulk Residential Complexes (Tariff B), which is applicable to electricity resellers.
These tariffs will increase by between 5.32 per cent and 8.5 per cent from July 1, subject to usage.
