{"id":649327,"date":"2026-05-22T15:22:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=649327"},"modified":"2026-05-22T15:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:34:20","slug":"blu-label-says-it-can-help-fix-municipal-electricity-revenue-problems-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/649327-blu-label-says-it-can-help-fix-municipal-electricity-revenue-problems-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Blu Label says it can help fix municipal electricity revenue problems in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blu Label Unlimited (Blu) said its BluEnergy business could help municipalities guarantee electricity revenue collections as Eskom\u2019s municipal debt crisis puts towns and cities under growing pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-CEO Mark Levy said BluEnergy was targeting one of the biggest problems in South Africa\u2019s electricity market: incorrect billing and weak collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe identified some shortcomings in these industries, and one of the biggest shortcomings is the incorrect or bad billing of electricity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough municipalities are buying correctly, they\u2019re not invoicing or collecting correctly, and those are tens of billions of rands a year where we can get stuck in, mostly in large power users, not homes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levy explained that 65% of consumption was large power users and that their system allowed them to look for lost and stolen electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got an at-risk model, and if we find this electricity, how do we get rewarded? So that\u2019s a big component of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has become a critical issue for Eskom, which has warned that municipal arrears are undermining its financial sustainability and threatening supply stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, on 19 May 2026, Eskom issued a notice that it intended to reduce, interrupt, or terminate supply to certain Johannesburg bulk supply points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The utility said the City of Johannesburg and City Power owed R5.26 billion in arrears, excluding a R1.58 billion current account due on 5 June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said it was unacceptable for municipalities to collect electricity revenue from customers while failing to pay the utility its share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levy said BluEnergy\u2019s first opportunity was to help municipalities and electricity distributors identify where money was being lost through poor billing and collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Cigicell, Blu Label\u2019s traditional prepaid electricity business, handled more than 60% of South Africa\u2019s prepaid electricity top-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That gives the company a strong base from which to understand payment flows, billing weaknesses, and electricity revenue leakage in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levy said the opportunity was worth tens of billions of rand a year, particularly among large power users rather than households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom’s municipal debt hit R116 billion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Eskom confiscated illegally-connected transformers in Diepsloot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eskom told Parliament\u2019s Standing Committee on Appropriations on 24 March 2026 that municipal arrears had reached about R116 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The utility projected that the debt could climb to R358 billion by 2031 if the growth in arrears was not addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom has also started using supply interruption notices against defaulting municipalities, although these can still be challenged or resolved through negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 7 May 2026, Eskom said interruptions against Mamusa Local Municipality would proceed, affecting Migdol and Schweizer-Reneke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planned interruptions against Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipality and Kai !Garib Local Municipality were suspended after legal and procedural developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom has also promoted Distribution Agency Agreements, which include services such as smart meter installation, skills development, and revenue collection support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BluEnergy\u2019s collection product fits into the same broader problem: municipalities need to improve electricity revenue collection before debt pressure worsens further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green power plans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Mark Levy, co-CEO of Blu Label Unlimited<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Levy said BluEnergy was also developing green energy projects to complement Eskom and municipal electricity supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company planned to support microgrids of between 10MW and 20MW, which would connect directly to municipal substations or local power nodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn incumbent can then reroute that energy elsewhere in the country. So it\u2019s not about replacing; it\u2019s about complementing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levy said South Africa already had around 3,000 such local nodes, creating an opportunity for targeted renewable energy projects close to where electricity is consumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSouth Africa has this fragmented or decentralised grid, where you have your incumbent, then you have provinces, and within provinces you have metros and municipalities,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithin a municipality you have a substation or a little power station that would supply areas around there. We call them nodes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This differs from large renewable energy projects in high-sun or high-wind areas, which feed power into the national transmission grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levy said those projects remained necessary, and BluEnergy\u2019s model focused on smaller, localised generation that could serve municipalities and large power users directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparing for future demand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The company also has an electricity trading licence, although Levy said the market was still too immature for widespread electricity trading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said electricity trading would become more relevant once there was more surplus generation and a more open trading environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, BluEnergy wants to buy and trade electricity in a similar way that mobile virtual network operators use existing telecommunications infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levy said Blu Label\u2019s distribution network could help support this model as electricity markets become more decentralised and commercially flexible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said electricity demand would rise sharply as artificial intelligence, data centres, and automation made economies more power-hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Levy, countries including the United States are already facing warnings that electricity supply may not meet machine-driven demand within several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said this meant South Africa had to build capacity for future needs, rather than only solving today\u2019s electricity supply constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re finding and plugging holes. By plugging holes, you\u2019re going to be able to produce more and collect more,\u201d Levy explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you collect more, you can buy more. Then, we complement the national grid with green energy, with batteries, allowing us to then cater for some localised needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That gives them less concentration risk, allowing them to borrow more and better cater for future demand. \u201cEverything that we\u2019re doing going forward is going to be power-hungry,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blu Label Unlimited said its BluEnergy business can help municipalities guarantee electricity bill collections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":649330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[100568,103368,19969],"class_list":["post-649327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-blu-label-unlimited-blu","tag-bluenergy","tag-mark-levy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649331,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649327\/revisions\/649331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}