Could prepaid meters roll out early in 2019?
The current price for a single meter is around R5 500. However, Haripersad said when considering the trend of bigger cities toward prepaid metering, the benefits were more than that of conventional metering.
The municipality will have prepaid meters available early in 2019.
Given the changes to the municipality’s tenant account policy, many landlords agree prepaid metering will protect their interests, as well as those of Newcastle Municipality.
However, they will have to wait until the new year to capitalise on this technology.
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Director of Financial Management Asha Haripersad understands that prepaid metering is one of the ways property owners can control the electricity consumption of their tenants.
“Prepaid meters are available, but we have none in stock currently. We are going on to a tender process to buy meters and hope to have them available by early 2019.”
Haripersad said once the bid was awarded to a service provider, the meters could be costed with an estimated selling price, which would be adjusted as required.
The current price for a single meter is around R5 500. However, Haripersad said when considering the trend of bigger cities toward prepaid metering, the benefits were more than that of conventional metering.
“Conventional metering means the user pays more than a month later. Prepaid allows for better management of consumption.” When prepaid meters were first rolled out by the municipality, Haripersad said approximately 1 500 indigent consumers converted to the new system and shortly afterwards, demand boomed for this kind of metering.
“We had many requests from businesses, especially those with tenants or with shops. We hope to finalise this in the first quarter of the new year.”
What does prepaid metering entail?
Residents using the prepaid metering system can purchase electricity ‘tokens’ from the municipality or via EasyPay at outlets including Pep, Pick n Pay or most petrol filling stations.
They can also use their cellphones to buy these tokens. Haripersad said purchasing tokens at shops had proven very popular, as the municipality was not open over weekends or outside of normal business hours.
An application for a prepaid meter can be made at the municipality.
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