City Power’s war against theft and aging infrastructure
City Power are tackling bypassed meters and outdated systems head-on, and outline their initiatives to ensure fair billing and enhanced safety for all Johannesburg.
In response to the growing challenges posed by bypassed electricity and water meters, City Power has initiated a comprehensive plan to ensure accurate billing and combat electricity theft.
Following the Token Identifier (TID) rollover project in November, significant strides have been made to meter all customers within the utility’s supply areas.
Read more: City Power responds to outages and recent Hursthill crime surge
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena stated: “The TID project has allowed us to audit and quantify the number of bypassed meters, ensuring that all customers are accurately billed for the electricity they consume daily.”
To support this initiative, the utility lifted penalties in November, encouraging customers with bypassed meters to register for the installation of new smart pre-paid meters.
By the end of the TID grace period, on November 30, City Power successfully installed over 50 000 meters, and replaced 13 775 bypassed and non-vending meters across various supply areas.
Despite these advancements, challenges persist. “While many customers have complied by visiting our eight Service Delivery Centres (SDCs), we still face issues such as refusal of access to properties, intimidation, and resistance from some residents in Lenasia and Alexandra,” Mangena noted.
City Power has adopted a firm stance against electricity theft, intensifying meter audits and removing identified bypassed meters. In cases of non-compliance with meter normalization, disconnections are enforced, with penalties reaching over R14 000 for single-phase connections and R30 000 for three-phase connections.
Also read: City Power battles surge in outages as severe weather takes its toll
“Furthermore, we’re collaborating with the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (JOSHCO) and Johannesburg Water to combat unauthorised connections that compromise municipal by-laws and community trust. These illegal connections contribute to frequent power outages and pose fire hazards, threatening public safety,” said Mangena
He outlined that they will continue to intensify operations aimed at auditing and removing bypassed meters, holding accountable those facilitating these illegal activities.
“The state of infrastructure in Johannesburg has also worsened, largely due to the ageing power network. City Power faces significant challenges as much of the infrastructure is between 60 to 100 years old, particularly in older suburbs like Roodepoort, Randburg, Hursthill, the inner city, and Reuven, as these areas were some of the first areas in the city to be electrified.”
As a result, the areas still rely on outdated equipment, including old breakers, mini substations, transformers, and cables.
Mangena stressed that this ageing infrastructure is vulnerable to frequent failures, including fires and trips, especially during power restoration. In an effort to improve reliability and efficiency, City Power is proactively replacing outdated systems whenever possible.
“One of the major challenges we are facing is the significant backlog in our infrastructure, which currently exceeds R40b. Unfortunately, our budget allocation is not sufficient to address this backlog, which includes both the replacement of old infrastructure and the development of new systems.”
They rely on funding provided by the City of Johannesburg municipality to tackle this issue, but it is often not sufficient.
“For example, last financial year, we were allocate R1.2b for these purposes, which is a small fraction of what is actually needed. The limited availability of funds to phase out old infrastructure is hindering our efforts, but we are doing our best to maintain our existing infrastructure to extend its lifespan.”
As part of their long-term strategy, the utility aims to phase out ageing infrastructure to enhance service reliability for residents.
Follow us on our Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok pages. Join our WhatsApp group for any story ideas you may have.
Related article: City Power under the microscope as entity rates itself almost 4/5
