Prepaid electricity price hikes in Joburg – what you’ll be paying from this month

 ·4 Jul 2023

Joburg power utility City Power has implemented tariff hikes for the 2023/24 financial year, impacting power users across the board – including prepaid users.

The group detailed its price changes for customers, including prepaid users who will now be paying close to R100 more a month.

As with most prepaid systems, City Power uses a block tariff to determine rates. The first block – up to 350kWh – is charged at a lower rate. Block 2 rates are more expensive up to 500kWh, and then increases again from there.

According to City Power, prepaid users will see the per kilowatt hour (kWh) rate increase to R2.10/kWh for block 1, and R2.41/kWh for block 2. The prices are excluding VAT.

For customers who use 350 kWh per month, the total for the block will increase by R95.55 to R733.85 for the month. Any kWh above 350 kWh will be charged at the block 2 rate.

“For example, customers using 374kWh/m will be charged an additional R7.52 paying R57.72 at block 2 tariffs for the additional 24kWhs. The total cost will be R791.57 per month, or R103.07 extra,” the group said.

To save costs, the utility advised customers to buy 350 kWh of electricity at the start of the month for R733.85 plus VAT (R843.93) and to use it sparingly.

Electricity price hikes

City Power said it has implemented the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) approved tariffs from the start of July 2023.

“The increase follows intensive consultation with the public during the recent Integrated Development Plan (IDP), and other regulated consultation processes before the entity made its application to Nersa,” it said.

“The IDP process is a pivotal instrument that empowers residents to influence the direction of their municipality. It gives community members an opportunity to engage with municipal authorities on how to prioritise service delivery issues.”

City Power said its tariff application to Nersa was in line with the consideration of the current economic conditions where most of our residents are affected by the rising costs of living, recovering from the impact of Covid-19, and the weighted average increase for its customers was limited to 14.97%.

The utility said it has different tariffs for four different categories, namely residential, business, agricultural and large power users.

“Although Nersa has approved most of the tariff increases as applied, it has changed City Power’s application with regards to the Business Tariffs affecting business prepaid, conventional and business conventional reseller customers also to 14.97%,” it said.

All customers will also be liable for a Network Surcharge of 6c/kWh.

Residential customers are, however, exempt from the Network Surcharge for the first 500kWh consumed per month.

All business and large power user customers are to be levied a 2% surcharge as well.


Read: Criminals targetting prepaid electricity users in South Africa – what to look out for

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