Fluctuating electricity tariffs are a cause for concern
Lydenburg residents have raised concerns about the fluctuating electricity tariffs of Thaba Chweu Municipality (TCM).
LYDENBURG – Lydenburg residents have raised concerns about the fluctuating electricity tariffs of Thaba Chweu Municipality (TCM).
According to a resident, units purchased for the same amount of money later in the month are less than the units purchased at the beginning.Members of the public want to know the reason for this.
“If I buy electricity for R200 for instance in the beginning of the month, I get 192 units. However, later in the month, these units decrease to 92 for R200, even though my accounts are not in arrears,” said one resident.
According to Mr Puleng Mapheto, communications manager of the municipality, it applies tariffs as approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
“Residents should note that as required by Nersa, we are applying the inclining block/step tariffs. Which means the more electricity a consumer uses per month, the more it will cost in terms of the step tariff,” said Mapheto.
Eskom prepayment electricity incline block tariffs (IBT) divides the electricity price into several steps or blocks. The first block of electricity is at the lowest price. As the customer purchases more electricity during the month, the electricity bought will eventually fall in block two which is a bit more expensive.
This process repeats automatically as the customer purchases further electricity to move into block two. At the end of the month, the history is reset and the customer will again start the next month from block one.
The process moves automatically from one block to the next and it depends only on the amount of electricity that is acquired by the customer. The movement to the next block is not at all affected whether the purchases are spread over many transactions or if all the electricity is part of one transaction.
Since the blocks increase in price, customers can save money by not buying more electricity than what they will use during the month. It is much better to wait until the next month and buy at the low price.
