Electricity prices in SA's top cities compared

Excellent article by Chris Yelland. It goes a long way to greater transparency and opening the important discussion on pricing

One thing it definitely shows is the premium we are paying in Cape Town. I'm happy to pay on the understanding the cash is going into maintaining the power infrastructure, providing better services and running a larger poverty alleviation plan than would be the case if we paid less
 
Chris.Geerdts said:
Excellent article by Chris Yelland. It goes a long way to greater transparency and opening the important discussion on pricing

One thing it definitely shows is the premium we are paying in Cape Town. I'm happy to pay on the understanding the cash is going into maintaining the power infrastructure, providing better services and running a larger poverty alleviation plan than would be the case if we paid less
Click to expand...

Agreed Chris.

Cape Town City has been doing a huge substation/switching gear replacement.
Almost everywhere I look the switching gear is being swapped out for new equipment.

I asked the foreman who was in charge of replacing the gear 100 m from my house.
"How old is the switching gear you are replacing? (It looked ancient)?"
His answer "we don't know Sir but they stopped making this type of gear more than 60 years ago. It might even be 80 years old."

I then asked how long gear should last. He said that they were budgeting to replace the new gear in 20 years.

So yes, load shedding aside, if they fix the infrastructure I will live with the premium
 
FiestaST said:
We manage about R200 prepaid a month & about R250 in winter here in the Cape.
2 adults & 1 toddler. Based on our consumption I always get the handy free units.
I can't complain.
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My understanding is that in Cape Town, it is the same rate form 0 kWh to 600 kWh for homes valued at of R300k.
 
Biscuit1018 said:
Agreed Chris.

Cape Town City has been doing a huge substation/switching gear replacement.
Almost everywhere I look the switching gear is being swapped out for new equipment.

I asked the foreman who was in charge of replacing the gear 100 m from my house.
"How old is the switching gear you are replacing? (It looked ancient)?"
His answer "we don't know Sir but they stopped making this type of gear more than 60 years ago. It might even be 80 years old."

I then asked how long gear should last. He said that they were budgeting to replace the new gear in 20 years.

So yes, load shedding aside, if they fix the infrastructure I will live with the premium
Click to expand...

I wonder in what the state of decay Gauteng electricity infrastructure is... I mean Gauteng is the poster province for urban decay and rapid urbanisation/spread.
 
Since there is one single monopoly supplier, I honestly don't understand why we don't have a standardised price across the board. I also don't agree with the way municipalities consider this a profit centre. Either Cape Town is making too much money out of electricity, or the others are charging less than they should to maintain their infrastructure.
 
garp said:
Since there is one single monopoly supplier, I honestly don't understand why we don't have a standardised price across the board. I also don't agree with the way municipalities consider this a profit centre. Either Cape Town is making too much money out of electricity, or the others are charging less than they should to maintain their infrastructure.
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I live in Cape Town but understand the delta (but not the extent of the delta)

The electricity is generated in Mpumalanga
In addition to Koeberg Cape Town needs a lot more electricity and the transmission network costs money to maintain.
They have to get it here.

With fuel the position is reversed. Most of the fuel is refined in Durban and Cape Town. It needs to get to Gauteng
 
greg_SA said:
Looks like Cape Town is pretty expensive!
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AFAIK, Eskom add "Transmission & Network charges" to CT electricity.
See
[Eskom Schedule of Std Prices 2014_15 (rev22Jan14).pdf]
http://www.eskom.co.za/CustomerCare...hedule of Std Prices 2014_15 (rev22Jan14).pdf

Transmission use-of-system charges (TUoS) means the network tariffs charged for making capacity available,
connecting to and for the use of the Transmission System. The TUoS charges are the source of the ETUoS and the
Transmission network charge components in the retail tariff structures.
Transmission network charge means the network related TUoS charge.
Transmission zone means the geographic differentiation applicable to Transmission network charges and loss
factors as indicated in paragraph 4, to indicate the costs associated with the delivery and transmission of energy.
Transmission-Zones.png
Click to expand...
 
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Does anyone know what Eskom charge the Metro's per kWh?
The [Eskom Schedule of Std Prices 2014_15 (rev22Jan14).pdf] is 41 pages long and is incomprehensible.
 
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