Cape Town cutting electricity application times

The City of Cape Town has launched an online platform for applying for electricity services, reducing waiting periods and furthering its goal of creating a modernised energy utility.

These services include applying for a new supply, an additional electricity meter, replacing an existing credit meter with a prepaid meter, or replacing a damaged meter.

These services can be paid via EFT, EasyPay, City walk-in centres, at participating stores, or cash, debit, or credit card.

“In 2024, we launched the online application platform for solar PV, and it has been a big success, drastically cutting down the turnaround time for applications,” the City’s Mayoral Committee Member (MMC) for economic growth, James Vos, said.

“Our new Energy Services Application portal aims to reduce turnaround times, increase transparency, and automate quotations.”

The initiative aims to improve residents’ and businesses’ access to electricity services by simplifying the application process, the City’s MMC for energy, Xanthea Limberg, said at the platform’s launch.

Vos added that improving this access would also increase economic growth by cutting the red tape that previously hindered the ease of doing business.

“Over the years, the process of applying for new or modified electricity connections has been administratively intensive, often involving paperwork and, in some cases, extended waiting periods,” he said.

“The City has been laser-focused on adapting modern digital and online solutions to not only significantly improve customer service experience, but also to ensure that energy service connections are approved in record time.”

Vos pointed to Cape Town’s vision of a modernised and future-fit energy utility, which it partly fulfilled by digitising its services.

The energy services application portal forms part of the metro’s overarching goal of cutting red tape through its Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Index launched in 2023.

At the EODB Index launch, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that the initiative aimed to make Cape Town the easiest African city in which to do business.

Vos said that so far, the city has cut wayleave processing times from one month to eight days, cut water connection processing times by 45%, and more than halved the time to get a clearance certificate to sell property.

This EODB Index initiative included Cape Town’s online platform to simplify and speed up solar installation applications filed by households and businesses.

The platform enables residents and businesses to apply, track their status, and have their applications approved in a shorter timeframe, Hill-Lewis said at its launch in early 2024.

“If you are an installer, a property owner or a service provider involved in solar PV installations, your first step is to register on e-Services and activate the ‘Energy Services’ tile to access Energy Service Applications,” CoCT explained.

“You can then apply to authorise your solar PV system via the easy-to-use online portal.”

This came just after Cape Town announced its Cash for Power programme, which would pay households and businesses cash to sell their excess electricity back to the grid.

However, there are concerns about whether the metro can continue the programme.

This comes after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) recently published its Net-Billing Rules for Licenced Distributors, which were approved at a meeting of the electricity subcommittee on 17 December 2024.

Under Section 7 of the rules, titled Compensation and Billing, Nersa states that energy exported to licenced distributors’ networks cannot be paid for in cash.

The rules also state that net-billing credits can only offset variable energy charges, not fixed, basic, or demand charges. Furthermore, they can only be credited to the relevant monthly billing period.

Where export compensation exceeds the financial value of energy purchases in that billing period, the credits can be carried over to offset future electricity purchases from the distributor.

However, rolled over credits cannot extend into the new financial year of the distributor.

Therefore, any additional energy generated that is not used by the end of a particular financial year will effectively have been provided to the distributor for free.

These new rules stand in contrast to the practices of the Cape Town metropolitan municipality under its Cash-for-Power programme.

Under the current terms of the programme, the City of Cape Town can pay households and businesses cash if the value of their net-billed credits exceeds their municipal accounts.