CoCT has published their proposed budget for the next financial year for public comment. 

They are proposing a 13.5% increase for electricity.

https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family and home/Meet-the-City/the-city-budget/the-citys-budget-2021-2022

Electricity tariffs for Home User tariff. Current tariffs in brackets. Including vat. 

 

Monthly network charge R194.29 (R168.95)

Block 1 0-600kWh R2.40/kWh (R2.09)

Block 2 More than 600kWh R3.31/kWh (R2.88)

 

 

Edited April 16, 20215 yr by Achmat

Saw that the other day, good thing I jumped on the solar bandwagon, at least save some money there.

Edited April 16, 20215 yr by Tariq

30 minutes ago, Tariq said:

Saw that the other day, good thing I jumped on the solar bandwagon, at least save some money there.

If they are only paying Eskom 65% of electricity tariffs, what are they doing with the other 35% and why do they need an additional connection charge? 

I plan on commenting about that particular point and sending it to CoCT, believe all of us should do it

Well, City of JHB saying they are increasing electricity by less than the increase Eskom got, but what that really means is that for most brackets on most tariffs the price per kw/h has increased by less than the Eskom increase. Your overall electricity spend may go up by more or less than the Eskom increase.

in COJ post-paid users will see only a small increase and scream hooray for the council (or not). But that's because the fixed fee component of their bill is so large already that 15% extra per KW/H will hardly be a blip on their radar. Pre-paid users are going to get hit a lot harder than 15%.

COCT have done a better job of justifying their increases than COJ have. If you think about the sort of things they point out like the number of rubbish bins they deal with per day, then it all looks a lot more justifiable. COJ instead have published long documents full of "international benchmarks" and "best practice" and blah blah blah. You won't understand it, or you'll have fallen asleep by page 15 where they are still dealing with definitions.

Last thought for now. CTs charge per kw/h is significantly higher than Johannesburg's.

1 hour ago, Achmat said:

If they are only paying Eskom 65% of electricity tariffs, what are they doing with the other 35% and why do they need an additional connection charge? 

Infrastructure, and there is a cost to maintaining accounts and reading meters. Which is why all municipalities should be giving a discount to pre-paid users (increasingly they do not).

There are all sorts of costs. Up in Gauteng encroachment onto street power lines by trees has become a big problem and City Power and Eskom are busy trimming in the areas they supply. Not always easy because some of the trees are actually on private property and owners refuse entrance or threaten to sue.

Edited April 16, 20215 yr by Bobster
I lied

26 minutes ago, Bobster said:

Infrastructure, and there is a cost to maintaining accounts and reading meters. Which is why all municipalities should be giving a discount to pre-paid users (increasingly they do not).

There are all sorts of costs. Up in Gauteng encroachment onto street power lines by trees has become a big problem and City Power and Eskom are busy trimming in the areas they supply. Not always easy because some of the trees are actually on private property and owners refuse entrance or threaten to sue.

So why the need for a separate line for network access and administration if the 35% markup is meant to cover those costs. 

I understand for the need to cover costs but if its already included in the 35% then there is no need for an additional charge. The DA in Gauteng is opposing this fee but are quite happy with it in CoCT. 

On a good day, I buy less than 1 kW from the City, which is essentially the grid buy for zero export

just sent in my comments on the budget proposals at  [email protected]

2 hours ago, Achmat said:

So why the need for a separate line for network access and administration if the 35% markup is meant to cover those costs. 

I understand for the need to cover costs but if its already included in the 35% then there is no need for an additional charge. The DA in Gauteng is opposing this fee but are quite happy with it in CoCT. 

The DA in Jhb are not acting on principle. They are opposing the introduction of a new fee for 2021/22 that they themselves tried to impose in 2019/20 when they were running the show. In Jhb they are making a noise about how residents should be incentivised to switch to pre-paid power, but as far as I can tell they have removed those incentives in CT. 

 

This is my shocked face 😐

 

Edited April 16, 20215 yr by PaulinNorthcliff