New Meters Required in South Hills to Prevent Outages

The South Hills residents recently contacted The Southern Courier with complaints about prolonged power outages.

Following investigations, the cause of the problem was determined.

Isaac Mangena, a spokesperson for City Power, stated that the Reuven Service Delivery Centre confirmed the reference numbers associated with the residents of South Hills who were reluctant to allow the authorised metering team to rectify their meters.

“Our records indicate that we have non-vending customers residing in Drusana Court, Olyfberg Court, and Tornaka Court on Southern Klipriviersberg Road, near the corner of Outspan opposite Queenshaven in South Hills. These residents without electricity have refused to cooperate with the meter normalisation process,” he explained.

Furthermore, customers must be made aware of the regulations outlined in Section 23(1) of the Electricity Act 41 of 1987, in conjunction with Section 101 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000, as well as Section 33(1) of the electricity by-laws:

“If customers intentionally impede, obstruct, or interfere with any authorised representative of City Power while performing their duties, including the replacement of faulty meters, they will be deemed to have committed an offense.”

Mangena emphasised that the stakeholder engagement team engaged with local councillors to explore alternative measures.

Also Read: Residents in two Johannesburg suburbs share impact of extended power outages

“This is to ensure that no customers are left behind and to guarantee the safety of our teams. The residents have now agreed to allow our metering department to install new meters. The installation will take place on June 6th and 7th.”

In March, City Power initiated a program to replace outdated, faulty, and bypassed meters at no cost to customers prior to the token identifiers (TID) rollover project.

The program also involves resetting the meters to comply with TID requirements.

TID resetting entails replacing every non-smart (old technology) meter with new technology meters. By November of next year, these old meters will no longer accept credit tokens, as the available numbers on the tokens will be exhausted.

City Power has implemented this program in phases to audit and normalise meters across the seven regions of the City of Joburg. Other areas will be visited in the upcoming months, and customers will be notified of the dates through communication with their councillors and local media.

The TID-compliance resetting aims to prevent meters from being locked out by November 2024, when the digits used for token recharging will be deleted.

“While this service is currently free, we reserve the right to disconnect any customer who tampers with the newly installed meters or refuses to reset the meter for TID compliance. In such cases, customers will be charged a reconnection fee, as well as the cost of the electricity consumed during the period of disconnection,” Mangena explained.

Furthermore, the audits will assist City Power in ensuring accurate data and providing smart meters to unmetered customers, particularly in less affluent areas. Smart meters will enable these customers to purchase electricity and help City Power monitor and regulate the load during the ongoing battle against load-shedding.

“We appeal to residents for their cooperation and request them to grant our officials access to their properties during the implementation of this task. These audits are crucial in preparation for the TID rollover, as other meters cannot be reprogrammed,” Mangena concluded.

Source: New meters need to be installed in South Hills to avert outages

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Photo: Supplied by Alberton Record