Hi guys, those of us that have invested in a solar system and are located near Cape Town, we are will get a shock when we see the new rates that are designed to punish us.

The less electricity you buy, the higher the increase will be.

Go the the https://web1.capetown.gov.za/web1/rtcalc/ and see how the new rates will affect you.

The less electricity you buy, the higher the increase will be.

mine will be 20,84% higher for the same services,

I find these proposed increases to be criminal. They are mafia style extortion fees.

We have until tomorrow, 2 May to object, send your email to [email protected]

The image shows you electricity to be lower?

City wide cleaning, sewage basic charge isn't specific to solar users.

Electricity consumption: R238.96 vs R234.90 (down 1.70%)

Home user charge: R245.03 vs R339.89 (up 38.72%)

Doesn't seem that bad

Edited May 1, 20251 yr by Pho3niX90

What is that document?

1 hour ago, Bobster. said:

What is that document?

That looks like just the budget for City of Cape Town for the new year 2025-2026, effective 1 July. I expect that more municipalities will shortly be finalising their annual budgets, and setting their tariffs for services for the coming year.

From the point of view of Electricity, one should view it in line with the Eskom tariff changes which were discussed on one of these forum threads a few months ago. At the time the Eskom direct customers were affected from 1 April '25, while bulk customers like municipalities are affected as from 1 July '25. Basically one can expect the municipalities to pass on the Eskom changes in tariffs and charges, which are giving you a higher fixed basic charge, but reducing the rate per kWh.

Low users (eg. Solar users) might feel disproportionally affected, but I guess the goal is to have everyone pay for the fixed infrastructure costs fairly. The sewerage infrastructure cost is also new, as is the city-wide cleaning charge.

Here I must wonder who has been paying for the street sweepers up to now, if it hasn't been included in general property rates? Are they trying to hide the increase in rates in a new line item? No idea, just wondering out loud. But hey, not my metro, not my circus. And off-topic for a power forum.

14 hours ago, Bobster. said:

What is that document?

City of Cape Town Rates Calculator - https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/residential-property-and-houses/private-properties/rates-and-tariffs-calculator

It shows what you're currently paying vs. what you will be paying under the new proposed rates, which are currently being reviewed due to ( warranted ) public pushback

Edited May 2, 20251 yr by hilt_ctn

26 minutes ago, hilt_ctn said:

City of Cape Town Rates Calculator - https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/residential-property-and-houses/private-properties/rates-and-tariffs-calculator

It shows what you're currently paying vs. what you will be paying under the new proposed rates, which are currently being reviewed due to ( warranted ) public pushback

Thanks. It's a nice touch. It also explains how the press is full of angry letters complaining that my municipal bill is going up 40%. I couldn't figure out how the residents had managed to do the sums with so many variables to be taken into account.

COCT has provided a useful tool, and in doing so made a rod for their own back.

29 minutes ago, hilt_ctn said:

https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/residential-property-and-houses/private-properties/rates-and-tariffs-calculator

Now under construction
Rates and Tariffs Calculator

The residential rates and tariffs calculator is currently under construction to incorporate amendments which clarify the following:

• that the property value to be used is the municipal value indicated on your latest municipal account and not the market value; and

• that the electricity tariffs are only applicable to City supply areas.

I'd have thought that everybody knew that rates are calculated on the City's valuation and not on perceived market value. Also that you'd know if you were getting power from Eskom or the City. But that's just me.

I have seen where I live how many residents have no idea about how their municipal is calculated or even that it is broken up into different sections with the details for each charge. They just look at the grand total and then die wet van die Transvaal is applied.

On 2025/05/01 at 4:23 PM, giorgos said:

The less electricity you buy, the higher the increase will be.

mine will be 20,84% higher for the

What would help is if that online tool gave a breakdown between fixed & variable costs.

What seems to be happening in COCT is that variable (per kWh) costs have dropped for people not using a lot in a month, but the fixed costs have gone up substantially.

This is playing out in COJ and with Eskom, maybe with other utilities. They want tariffs whereby you pay a fixed charge for provision of service and another for what you actually use.

I can see why they think that way, but I push back against it anyway because my back pocket gets hurt.

In COJ you could save a healthy whack each month if you switched to prepaid electricity. Fixed fees here are high (now about a grand a month) so even though you paid more per unit on prepaid, the savings were worthwhile. More & more people saving on prepaid meant reduced income for City Power. Which was a problem for the City because electricity sales had been their cash cow.

Another argument to be made was that post paid users subsidised prepaid. When I made the switch I was paying zero per month for a connection, meanwhile my neighbours on either side were paying (then) 800 per month just for being connected.

Last year COJ introduced a R200 fixed fee on prepaid meters and said that the long term plan was to have all users pay their fair share towards service provision.

This year they announced that the R200 was going up (though they phrased this in vague terms). Now we are told that the City had listened to residents and the fee will stay at R200. This doesn't make me happy. They will grab the money from somewhere else, or they will put the brakes on subsidies for pensioners and the poor.

TLDR: this is the way it's going to go. Higher fixed fees for services.

1 hour ago, Bobster. said:

Higher fixed fees for services.

This may make the calculation to become self sufficient and disconnected from the grid more likely methinks...

1 hour ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

This may make the calculation to become self sufficient and disconnected from the grid more likely methinks...

That's a calculation for each of us. I would need another inverter, more panels (I have roof space for maybe another dozen), another battery, and a good generator as a last resort. I figure a 25 year payback at current tariffs. IE I will be dead by the time I recover the outlay.

OK... tariffs will increase year-on-year, so maybe 15 years.

The other thing is that going off grid ties you to a property. Unless you are willing to uninstall everything, pay for a new connection, and take the whole shebang with you and re-install.

Yep. I'm the sort of guy who will tell you the glass is 1/8 empty.

Electricity fixed fees going up by around 30%

Doesn't matter if you are prepaid or postpaid

The last time I checked, Johannesburg electricity unit charges was about R 1/unit less than Cape Town

2 hours ago, James 1 said:

Electricity fixed fees going up by around 30%

Doesn't matter if you are prepaid or postpaid

The last time I checked, Johannesburg electricity unit charges was about R 1/unit less than Cape Town

There's multiple domestic tariffs in both cities. Though looking at free standing properties in the burbs, the default package in COJ does have lower per unit costs, though I can't be precise about the amount. But fixed fees are the best part of a grand in COJ now.

Prepaid in COJ the per unit cost is higher, and there are only three steps in the tariff so you hit top rate more quickly, but fixed fees are R200. Unless you qualify as indigent - then no fixed fees.

I think I'm right that in COCT pre and post paid basically cost the same.

COJ has a TOU tariff. Winter peak time is expensive, but if you plan when you are going to use electricity you could save.

10 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

This may make the calculation to become self sufficient and disconnected from the grid more likely methinks...

There is a step before disconnecting completely: get power supply from your neighbour. If you have enough batteries, you probably only need a 10A supply to run a small household in overcast conditions.

11 hours ago, frivan said:

There is a step before disconnecting completely: get power supply from your neighbour. If you have enough batteries, you probably only need a 10A supply to run a small household in overcast conditions.

That's what I had in 2020/2021, a 10A circuit from the neighbour, feeding him during the day and using some when the battery was down at night... by now, neighbour also off grid and getting electrons from us 24/7... want to still add battery capacity, 38kWh at the moment... luckily in the Kalahari we don't have that much cloud cover, but seemed to be a bit more than normal in the last 7 months or so...

I wonder whether the Municipalities will cater for a home that only wants a 10A feed and if so, whether the costs are then realistic for this feed, then, instead of a generator as backup (which we don't have at the moment) it could be an option to have this 10A connection, although not here, to help out on cloudy days, either way, one would need to have enough battery and one should manage ones usage...

1 hour ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

I wonder whether the Municipalities will cater for a home that only wants a 10A feed and if so, whether the costs are then realistic for this feed

A couple of years ago COJ's draft budget proposed a new tariff for households that
A) had no PV panels on their roof
B) would accept a 20 A main breaker
You could have a solar geyser and qualify for this scheme - many RDP houses in the City already had solar geysers. They thought this could provide savings for poor households.

This was a year of a big Eskom increase, and the if the scheme went ahead then people on this tariff would effectively get about half the Eskom increase. But it was shot down in council. All tariffs were left as is except for the Eskom increase.

Just got my rates and taxes statement for Cape Town, a 30% increase versus 1 month ago. The municipalities need to find other revenue sources versus double taxing and increasing rates from their existing base. It's crazy. Inflation sits at 4%, what right do they have to do these increases.