upup
Executive Member
rather be concern about the people they report to, our government.
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Concern as electricity usage dips [NMBM]
- Thread starter MickeyD
- Start date
You don't want to know...
I think this article means that more people in this metropole are stealing electricity and those in charge do not know of it, or pretend it is not happening
Take a drive into Tafelsig in Mitchell's Plain. Streets covered with electrical cables, snaking all over the place with open sub-stations and crocodile clips
Take a drive into Tafelsig in Mitchell's Plain. Streets covered with electrical cables, snaking all over the place with open sub-stations and crocodile clips
Sinbad
Honorary Master
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If you read you will see that Eskom are asking the municipality why their usage has dropped. Theft wouldn't have this result, rather the opposite.
KhoisanX
Expert Member
The problem with this is that while it's a fairly simple concept for most people on MyBB to understand, in the real world it's actually quite a complicated problem. It would involve looking at past usage, current factors like the weather, pricing etc. etc. and then making predictions about future usage, and revenue.
To do this properly you're going to require someone with some sort of science degree like statistics, actuarial etc. I doubt you're going to find many of these in your average municipality.
The thing is they're trying to ensure that people do use it sparingly because of supply problems. The municipality is dishing out geyser switches and energy saving lightbulbs and Eskom is blanket advertising that they don't have enough power people are using less. Say I replaced 50 lightbulbs that used to use 60w bulbs with 8w energy savers…
Albereth
Honorary Master
The problem is actually made worse by the municipalities themselves (oh, with a little bit of government policy thrown in).
Eskom - supply bulk amount of power to municipality.
Municipality - on sells power to consumer with a margin that allows for maintenance and profit.
Do the maths and the muni should at worst balance.
But.
In any business you will have bad debts. That is understood and actually will be factored into the margin
Again, no real problem unless your default rate assumptions are way out.
Now we bring politicians into the picture.
The govenrment has allowed people to move into unproclaimed land (obviously it is land but hasn't been proclaimed as a township, suburb etc). And they have provided services - water and lights. But the kicker is, they are not allowed to bill for services if the land is unproclaimed. And proclaiming the land isn't always an option - it's probably not safe (yet we let people live there anyway?)
So, we're looking at about 20% of the power just never going to be recovered.
Back to the 80% that is recoverable (apart from the bad debt part). Social programmes and dealing with indigent folk, theft, in accurate billing and suddenly the bad debt assumptions are meaningless. Munis think that a recovery rate of around 80% is an acceptable rate - and that's the number they report around. When you consider that it's really 80% of 80% that the numbers just don't stack up.
There is a cosy little relationship going on between the government and the courts. Rate payers are outraged at the wasteage of their rates, that others get aways without paying. So the muni will apply to move the people who have illegally occupied the unproclaimed land. The courts say no. Squatters happy. Muni happy. Courts couldn't care.
Maybe next time someone wants to stage a service delivery protest instead of burning down the councillors house they should rather burn down the court.
And the municipalities should report on the recovery agains the toal electricity bought from Eskom - 64% is crap business.
Eskom - supply bulk amount of power to municipality.
Municipality - on sells power to consumer with a margin that allows for maintenance and profit.
Do the maths and the muni should at worst balance.
But.
In any business you will have bad debts. That is understood and actually will be factored into the margin
Again, no real problem unless your default rate assumptions are way out.
Now we bring politicians into the picture.
The govenrment has allowed people to move into unproclaimed land (obviously it is land but hasn't been proclaimed as a township, suburb etc). And they have provided services - water and lights. But the kicker is, they are not allowed to bill for services if the land is unproclaimed. And proclaiming the land isn't always an option - it's probably not safe (yet we let people live there anyway?)
So, we're looking at about 20% of the power just never going to be recovered.
Back to the 80% that is recoverable (apart from the bad debt part). Social programmes and dealing with indigent folk, theft, in accurate billing and suddenly the bad debt assumptions are meaningless. Munis think that a recovery rate of around 80% is an acceptable rate - and that's the number they report around. When you consider that it's really 80% of 80% that the numbers just don't stack up.
There is a cosy little relationship going on between the government and the courts. Rate payers are outraged at the wasteage of their rates, that others get aways without paying. So the muni will apply to move the people who have illegally occupied the unproclaimed land. The courts say no. Squatters happy. Muni happy. Courts couldn't care.
Maybe next time someone wants to stage a service delivery protest instead of burning down the councillors house they should rather burn down the court.
And the municipalities should report on the recovery agains the toal electricity bought from Eskom - 64% is crap business.