Emfuleni’s smart meter bypassing crackdown has clawed back R1,2 million in fines and lost municipal revenue – after only about a week of action against offending residents and businesses.

The action is continuing and at time of publication only about 40% of the identified smart meter bypasses of about 110 had been rectified, smart meter service provider BXC SA confirmed.

So far, at least 19 residential fines of R10 000 each have been paid to the municipality to have power reconnected – accounts with bypasses remain cut off until the fine is paid.

Several R40 000 fines have also been issued to businesses found to have their smart meters bypassed.

Most of the rectified bypassed accounts thus far were in Three Rivers, Vereeniging, and in the CE1 and SE3 areas in Vanderbijlpark.

All bypassed accounts pay back all stolen electricity and the costs to fix damaged electricity infrastructure – and this forms the bulk of the R1,2 million clawed back from offending residents and businesses so far.

The zero tolerance crackdown process has also identified – by both Vaalweekblad and BXC investigations – yet another organised syndicate performing bypasses for payment by businesses and residents in both Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging, bringing the number of known syndicates to at least three.

The present ongoing campaign focuses only on smart meter bypasses – not traditional pre-paid meter bypasses –  to maximise revenue from the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s (ELM) approximately 3000 smart meters already installed.

A major smart meter installation drive in also under way in Emfuleni suburbs and townships for both electricity and water smart meters with at least 12 000 electricity and 5 000 smart water meters to be installed.

The present smart meter bypass crackdown is thus a pro-active strategy to address and prevent widespread smart meter bypassing as installations gather steam and is a means to strengthen ELM revenue security.

However, the proportion of smart meter bypasses is a fraction of that of traditional pre-paid meters, where the vast majority have been bypassed for years, leading to a catastrophic drop in electricity revenue for ELM.

This is largely due to the fact that the real-time smart meter IT management system can immediately identify a bypass the moment it is done and action can be taken.

Exact figures are not known, but experts estimate that of the roughly 70 000 pre-paid electricity meters installed in Emfuleni, only about 19 000 produce revenue for the municipality – and that includes the 3000 smart meters installed at present.