64% increase in electricity charge.

[Derlyn]

Well BCMM have adjusted their electricity tarrifs and mine has increased by 64%.

How can this be justified ?

My average usage for the year is 181 Kw/h /month.
My tarrif was R3.32 per unit, so that was R600.92/month.

With the new tarrif structure it is R3.07 per unit = R555.67
Plus R432.40 surcharge or availability fee.

Now R988.07 /month, an increase of 64.42%.

Time to go completely off grid and have the municipal supply disconnected so that the availability fee is not payable.

With this new tarrif structure, the less you use, bigger your % increase is gonna be.

[GCE]

There has been a comedy of errors that has forced the availability charges
Eskom unbundling which has created a generation division and network infrastructure division along with the court case against NERSA to provide proven costs before increases can be implemented by the municipalities.

In turn municipalities needed to reduce there KWH rates to cost (eskom supply rates ) plus losses that are not through negligence or lack of maintenance - This obviously helps big users that use excessive amounts of KWH.
The 2nd part was network costs to maintain , excluding lack of maintenance and vandalism .It had to be true network costs and allow for expansion etc to the network and general maintenance and replacement of old equipment and cables.- Your availability costs.

The idea that you can install extra batteries , panels , generators and tell them to take a hike and remove your incoming cable will not work , unfortunately.

At the moment if you buy a plot you pay water and sewage availability and elec availability will now also be part and parcel of having an empty plot.
Even if you have the cable removed you will more than likely still pay availability .

I know we don't want to hear it but fair is fair - If an open plot of ground gets divided up and the developer takes forever to build why should I as a " neighbour" pay for the maintenance of the cable network while there are no users contributing.

The argument against the cable removal and availability - I go buy a house and the present owner has had cable removed as he is happy to limp along with his 5kw system. I buy and say bugger this I want to put heater on when I turn the switch and not have to think, so Mr Municipality put the cable in and make sure the transformer can handle it - If most people are "off grid" in the neighbourhood they will not have the money to maintain that network. What is going to happen , rates maybe increase to cover the cost ?

How are the street lights and robots going to work if there is no network in the area. Can go even further and say cellphone towers , fiber network cabinets etc .You could say they must pay extra , if they do you still going to pay extra for that service , so again you will be paying network charges in a round about manner.

It is the unfortunate part of living in the world where we have become accustom to living with "luxuries" like water , street lights, electricity , fiber , cellphones and the list goes on

Big business have been paying excessive KWH rates compared to being in an eskom area of supply , and being paying huge network costs.
Big business is what keeps us all going as they pay the salaries that employ our services , whether big or small

[Justloadit]

Unfortunately in our country no one wants to contribute to the running of the country, but want to consume with no pay.
I know of many people who pay R100 a month for electricity or don't even pay anything, yet consume more than R1000.00 as they have geysers, fridges, and are expecting me to foot the balance. I consume R3000.00 a month. So how can my measly R3000.00 subsidise the balance?

Also we must realise big business is not the be all and end all. Yes they may employ large number of staff, but ultimately it is small business that employs the majority of staff. If there is 2 million small business employing an average of 2 people, that equates to 4 million employees. Big business may employ 1 million, so who supports employed people.

[Derlyn]

The problem is we all know what the money received for availavility is used for. Different story altogether if those funds are ringfenced for electrical work only. Unfortunately that's not the case.

What do we as ratepayers get for the rates we pay. I don't know and cannot speak for other areas but here on the Westbank in East London we get nothing ... zero.

I'm not referring to refuse removal and sewerage that we pay extra for, I'm referring to rates.

A video has been made by the chief of revenue at BCMM saying that the reason they had to introduce a surcharge was because those with pv systems were using the municipality as a battery. Now, there is provision in our by laws for discontinuence of service which states that 2 days written notice is required should one want to apply to have the supply disconnected. They will have to change the by laws if they want to charge availability even if you are not connected to them.

Presently we do not pay for water availability. But I suppose that's also in the pipeline. Another scam to suck us dry.

Interesting fact is that between 1870 and 2023, 153 years, availability charges for electricity were not necessary.
Why now ? What has changed ?

[GCE]

Interesting fact is that between 1870 and 2023, 153 years, availability charges for electricity were not necessary.
Why now ? What has changed ?

In the old days you went to a house they had 5 plugs - Now you have 20 - more appliances
It is a world wide problem that businesses are subsidizing domestic in the tariff rate - Early up I said big business but it is actually all businesses
80% of the peak comes from Domestic and with PV the usage is being reduced but the peaks are becoming bigger in real terms -

In Europe they are introducing live tariffs to get through peak times - In SA they are wanting all domestic on time of use because of the evening and morning peaks
By introducing availability they can reduce the KWH tariff which helps all businesses and the plan is to ringfence the availability for network capacity/maintenance , which is part of the court case against NERSA as the municipalities need to provide proven costs.

If you look at the Eskom graph below it is not viable to build power stations for peaks only

[Dave A]

In the debate on residential availability fees here in Ethekwini, the number that is put up for average consumption for residential single phase supplies is 900 kWh per month. The less you use, the more unfair the network availability fee seems. And it does feel like those of us that made an effort to be efficient in our consumption are being punished.

But crunching my own numbers -
Putting in solar has moved me from 460kWh per month to an average of 53kWh per month.

So using today's rates (including VAT) -
It was 460kWh x 334.58/100 = R1539.07
With solar I am saving 403 x 334.58/100 = R1348.36 per month.
Availability fee (on a 5kW inverter) = 5 x 6217/100 = R310.85

Still a saving of R1037.51 per month.
It does significantly delay the breakeven point on the installation though.

[Derlyn]

We going to see a huge increase in meter tampering as a result of this unjustified, ridiculous tariff increase.

The sad part is, as Dave mentioned, those who use less are affected much more than those who use plenty.

I know I'm going to get a backlash for saying the following, but I couldn't care.

Up to now I have had a good relationship with the municipality, always tipping them off when I find an unsealed or tampered meter. That has come to an end. From now on they must do their own dirty work. After all, they cannot now complain that they are short staffed. They have just given more than half of the residents in East London an electricity price increase of more than 50% so there's now more than enough money for them to employ as many inspectors as they like, to check their own meters.

I will never encourage anyone to tamper with their meter, but until all the blatant illegal connections have been removed, should I come across a tampered meter, I'll keep it to myself because I understand the predicament in which people find themselves.

Flamesuite on.

I

[GCE]

Tend to agree with you - All I can do is inform people that the meter has been tampered with.
I also have told meetings to take a pic of the seal either way to cover your ass and note it on the COC

We had a case where the new and old owner tried to blame the electrical contractor that issued the COC, for tampering with the seal

[Derlyn]

In Ethekwini, does one only pay availability if you have a pv system ?

What about the users without pv ?

[Dave A]

In Ethekwini, does one only pay availability if you have a pv system ?

In essence, yes, although the bill of tariffs also refers to a "generator".
I've raised a question as to whether it only applies to generators that feed energy into the grid...