Eskom has announced that residents in Soweto, Sandton and Midrand will soon join those in the City of Tshwane who have prepaid electricity smart meters installed in their households.

The power utility said it’s expanding its smart meter distribution across the Gauteng province in a bid to help improve revenue and address its debt collection challenges.

This year saw the power utility threatening to cut off 20 of South Africa’s most indebted municipalities, who collectively owed 70% of the R4.6 billion in unpaid electricity rates.

Around 32 000 meters will be installed in Sandton and Midrand by the end of March 2017, while 30 000 of 150 000 have reportedly already been installed in Soweto, despite protests this year by residents against the installation of meters in the township.

Installing the meters will come at no extra cost to residents.

“The benefits of prepaid metering include enabling customers to monitor their consumption by checking the easy to read monitor and adjusting their consumption accordingly,” Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said on the weekend.

We’re crossing our fingers that this doesn’t turn out as badly as the PEU/City of Tshwane saga where millions were flushed down the toilet due alleged corruption which led to cancelled contracts and non-delivery of the smart meters in the metro.

[Source – Fin24, image – CC tookapic]