Eskom's hefty fine for meter fraud

Daniel Puchert

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R6,000 fines in prepaid electricity meter crackdown

Eskom's data has revealed that nearly 40% of prepaid meters in some South African cities aren't vending power. This indicates significant meter fraud and guilty customers could face hefty fines and disconnections.

Speaking to SABC News, Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the state-owned power utility fines illegally connected customers around R6,050 and disconnects them until they pay the penalty.
 
Ok cool, now follow through with this.
40% of prepaid meters (assuming Eskoms 6.9m number is accurate) would equate to around 2.8m people who need to be fined.
At a R6050 fine, that would be a nice R16.7bn deposit to pay down some of Eskoms debt.
 
Depending on your monthly electricity usage that fine isn't much of a deterrent.
Exactly. I have a very small household, and go through about R1500 a month in prepaid. I would imagine a bigger house can do R6000 in one month.

Also, asking for a friend. Where does one find these ghost vendors that sell tokens for cheap.
 
Its a bludy lie. You don't bite the hand that feeds you, and so too do you not disconnect the electricity of your voter base.
 
I started to read up about power adaptors running a IP network over a power network. Why don't the municipalities start doing this over the power network? If you add illegal tokens, your power goes off!
 
I started to read up about power adaptors running a IP network over a power network. Why don't the municipalities start doing this over the power network? If you add illegal tokens, your power goes off!
Smart meters already have this functionality. Tokens are cryptographic though so it's more complicated as it you'd need to do some form of reconciliation between what has been issued legitimately and what hasn't.
 
I started to read up about power adaptors running a IP network over a power network. Why don't the municipalities start doing this over the power network? If you add illegal tokens, your power goes off!
This was supposed to happen decades ago. The word you are looking for is PLC (power line communication). As I recall, in JHB South I saw a set up like that in a pilot project. But, alas, the ANC...
 
R6,000 fines in prepaid electricity meter crackdown

Eskom's data has revealed that nearly 40% of prepaid meters in some South African cities aren't vending power. This indicates significant meter fraud and guilty customers could face hefty fines and disconnections.

Speaking to SABC News, Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the state-owned power utility fines illegally connected customers around R6,050 and disconnects them until they pay the penalty.


Those stats are probably slightly incorrect.
I'm in that 40% (hold the pitchforks I'm not stealing electricity) I have a prepaid meter and a solar system - I went from an average of purchasing around 500Kwh a month to under 100Kwh - they flagged my meter for tampering and sent out so far 2 investigators - who checked out my meter and saw the Panel they cleared me - but anytime there is an issue and I try and log a call it still says I'm flagged, and quite a few homes in my neighbourhood on prepaid with Solar power with the same problem.
So I'm on the good side and they not updating the system are they actually going out to check out majority of those that are actually bridging meters?
 
That fine is lower than I thought it would be. At that rate it’s almost only a fee
 
I started to read up about power adaptors running a IP network over a power network. Why don't the municipalities start doing this over the power network? If you add illegal tokens, your power goes off!
Too technical.

CoJ/CityPower give you a "PowerCard" with your pre-paid meter/account number.
You use this meter/account number to purchase kWh units.
Your purchase is uploaded to CoJ computer system.
Not sure if the purchase is realtime/online or batch/offline uploaded to CoJ computer.
Seems Eskom allows for batch/offline purchase giving rise to Ghost vendors with stolen vending machines.

CoJ check your pre-paid computer account and if you don't purchase of 3 months (eg go solar), then CoJ send an inspector to your house to see what's going on and possibly disconnect you.

No need to wait for TID rollover on the 24/11/2024 to discover who is illegal.
Eskom use the same system as CoJ as they also affected by TID rollover.

Why can't Eskom do the same 3 month no purchase check and locate thieves who stealing electricity?
 
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Too technical.

CoJ/CityPower give you a "PowerCard" with your pre-paid meter/account number.
You use this meter/account number to purchase kWh units.
Your purchase is uploaded to CoJ computer system.
Not sure if the purchase is realtime/online or batch/offline uploaded to CoJ computer.
Seems Eskom allows for batch/offline purchase giving rise to Ghost vendors.

CoJ check your pre-paid computer account and if you don't purchase of 3 months (eg go solar), then CoJ send an inspector to your house to see what's going on and possibly disconnect you.

No need to wait for TID rollover on the 24/11/2024 to discover who is illegal.
Eskom use the same system as CoJ as they also affected by TID rollover.

Why can't Eskom do the same 3 month no purchase check and locate thieves who stealing electricity?

Cos this is Eskom we talking about.

A high-school student would be more efficient than them.
 
City power came to my house last week and the week before that to do an audit.

They came to my place as well. I opened the gate and warned them there are dogs. They came in anyways.

Then they saw the pitbulls and beat Bolt Usain's record in running away.
 
Too technical.

CoJ/CityPower give you a "PowerCard" with your pre-paid meter/account number.
You use this meter/account number to purchase kWh units.
Your purchase is uploaded to CoJ computer system.
Not sure if the purchase is realtime/online or batch/offline uploaded to CoJ computer.
Seems Eskom allows for batch/offline purchase giving rise to Ghost vendors.

CoJ check your pre-paid computer account and if you don't purchase of 3 months (eg go solar), then CoJ send an inspector to your house to see what's going on and possibly disconnect you.

No need to wait for TID rollover on the 24/11/2024 to discover who is illegal.
Eskom use the same system as CoJ as they also affected by TID rollover.

Why can't Eskom do the same 3 month no purchase check and locate thieves who stealing electricity?
Eskom have the same system - and according to the Eskom inspectors that came to me they also flag you if you spend under R300 a month -
bits the disconnection that they suck at - City power is the same -BTW
they post on Social media when they go to some neighbourhoods but they not going to the majority.
 
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