Prepaid electricity in the main, is quite a good concept to look into if you are still running a post paid system and are struggling with exorbitant monthly fees and costs. If you are controlling your energy spend with the post paid method, then this is in order however it can easily become a costly expense. Prepaid electricity too, are not without it’s errors and issues and below we will discuss some very common errors you will come across some time or the other with your prepaid electricity set-up:

Error Messages: 

1. SAD face – probably means it is just finger trouble in typing the token number – please retry
2. DDDD –  Duplicated token. The token has probably been entered already, causing this error. Please double check.
3. Error 30 – Technical error on your meter. To try and troubleshoot this error, please switch off your meter, as well as your electricity mains and give it a few minutes. Afterwards, turn back on your mains and meter back on and retry your token. If the error 30 persists, please contact your municipality and get a technician to come out and have a look at the meter.

Meter Blocked? – It does occur that a meter is blocked by a municipality’s credit control. This means that the municipality prevents your meter from making a prepaid purchase until the block is lifted. To have this lifted the client needs to sort this out with the municipality.

While we are on the subject, also important to note that any outstanding fees on your utility bill that is deemed to be in arrears, can be deducted from your prepaid electricity purchase. If this takes place, it is wise to contact the municipality to resolve this.

For more information please visit: https://straton.co.za/pre-paid/about/prepaid-meter-error-codes/

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JOHANNESBURG – The City of Johannesburg on Thursday said exactly that as it was aware of the intense monetary environment and pressure on residents, its rates and assessment increments increases effectively one week from now were directed by expanding operating costs

Electricity rates are now up by 14.59%, followed by sanitation and water tariffs by 6.8%. Refusal removal rates are up by 4.3% whole property rate increased by 2%.

The high power climb is connected to the energy controller Nersa giving Eskom the go-ahead to charge clients and municipality more.

City Power’s Frank Hinda said: “We’re also on the receiving end as far as this is concerned. We’re cushioning the customer given that our increase from Eskom is higher.”

“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on lives and livelihoods of Johannesburg residents. This has seen many people struggling to keep up with their municipal accounts as you would all have seen. This has subsequently affected the collection of municipal rates and taxes that are a source of revenue for continued service delivery.”

Hinda said he understood that the 14.59% power climb passed on  to clients would hit residents pockets hard given the current monetary environment.

The average electricity user – prepaid or conventional – consuming 800 kilowatt-hours a month – can expect to fork out somewhere in the range  R200 and R260 more a month.

The post Tariff Increase 1 July 2021 appeared first on Powertime.

How?

Simply add or save our whatsApp number 0443822484 to your smart phone and refresh your WhatsApp contact list, and you should be able to now send us a message directly to that number!

You can now send us a message or you can send us screen shots of the issue you are experiencing on Android, iOs, Windows mobile and Web as displayed by the images below. So go ahead and test it out! 

Our other support channels include:

Email: support@powertime.co.za

Office line: (021) 911 5611

Messenger: m.me/PowertimeZA

And of course, our live chat feature on our website!

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Please note that we have recently updated our security with regards to adding a credit card to your profile. If you have added your credit card, without passing through the 3D secure process where you authenticate your card by an OTP sent from your bank, the card will be pending approval.

What this means is that one of our support staff, will investigate your account, and make contact with you. Your card will then be approved or declined at this stage. This will take place, Monday to Friday, between 7am and 5pm.

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Hot Water

No-cost

• Use less hot water – Shower instead of bathing, Do not let the hot water run unnecessarily, use cold water to wash your hands instead.
• Turn your geyser down to 60°C. Turning your geyser down from 70˚C to 60˚C will see a 5% reduction in your hot water electricity bill. In some cases, 55°C is a good option (but not below that for health risk reasons)
• Switch off your geyser when you go away for a few days or more and during peak hours.

Low-cost

• Insulate your water pipes and wrap your geyser in a geyser blanket.
• Install a geyser timer.
• Switch to a low-flow, energy and water efficient aerated showerhead
• Fix leaking hot water taps.

Lighting

No-cost

• Turn off the lights if you leave a room for more than five minutes.
• Maximise sunlight. Open the curtains in the morning rather than turning on lights.

low-cost

• Replace traditional incandescent light bulbs with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
• Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) remain a somewhat more affordable way to save,
• Use solar powered lights in your garden

Appliances

No-Cost

• Switch off all unused appliances at the wall.
• Only use your washing machine once a full load of dirty laundry has accumulated
• Use cold-water or lower heat settings as often as possible.
• Skip the pre-wash cycle for clothes that aren’t particularly dirty
• Never overload your automatic washing machine
• When using a kettle, boil only as much water as you need

Low-Cost

• Invest in a front-loading washing machine instead of a top loader. It uses less water and costs less to operate
• Have the seals in your fridge replaced to keep the cold air in
• Choose a dishwasher model with a no-heat air-drying feature to save even more electricity, if you can’t use a cloth to dry the dishes or let them drip-dry instead.

The post Save on Electricity This Month appeared first on Powertime.

Recently, we have been inundated with request about electricity tariffs. Mostly with regards to why certain some users are receiving less units for the same amount in rands than they have previously. For the purposes of budgeting, it would be helpful to know what it cost to run the various appliances in your household. The purpose of this blog is to go into a bit of detail into what exactly an electricity tariff is and how it is measured. We also provide you with a helpful tool to measure how much units you typically use, and this should help you with financial planning with regards to energy spend in your household.

How is electricity measured?

So, how is electricity measured? This is an important question to begin to understand how an electricity tariff works. Electricity power is measured in terms of units, called watts. Most applicances in a household requires well in excess of 1,000 watts in order to function properly, which is why we generally refer to electrical power as kilowatts. Each kilowatt representing 1,000 watts. So how is this calculated? If you take an example of a 100 watt ceiling fan, and use it for two hours a day for 30 days, you have used 100 watts of power for 60 hours.

This calculates as 100 watts x 60 hours = 6000 watt-hours of electrical energy. Or 6 kilowatt-hours (kWh) which is the measurement of electricity units.

What does it mean?

If we look at Eskom’s small customer tariffs (which is most households in South Africa), the electricity used is billed as an energy charge. This is calculated in cents per kilowatt. (c/kWh). Now, this charge (c/kWh) differs per municipality and also differs per household, depending on the tariff they are on. This is a set amount based or determined by how much electricity a house-hold uses. Those who consumes above 600kWh are charged higher tariffs (c/kWh) as those who use below 600 kWh. Remember kWh stands for Kilowatts per Hour, as calculated above

For more a deeper break-down into tariffs, click here

How do I calculate how much my appliances are costing me?

This is where it might become a bit tricky. How do I calculate how much an appliance is costs to operate? Well, once you know which tariff you are on, you need to multiply the amount of kWh a particular appliance uses by the energy rate (c/kWh) applicable to your tariff and divide by 100 to get to the Rand value. So, if we take the above example and use Eskom’s block 1 tariff for residential users, the energy charge is 153,90c/kWh (including VAT) The calculation would be as follows:

6kWh x 153,90c/kWh = 923.4/100= R9.23

So, as we can see in this example, it costs R9,23 to run a 100 watt ceiling fan, 2 hours a day for 30 days. City Power has a very nifty tool that can help you calculate this as well, see this link  for more.

As we know, this is getting costlier every year and it might be time to look at other, more eco-friendly solutions of powering your home.

The post What is an Electricity Tariff? appeared first on Powertime.

This comes after heavy pressure from National Treasury, who imposed municipal debt recovery as a mandatory condition to it’s R59bn life-line, thus the disconnection warnings. This “bail-out”, was signed off by President Cyril Ramaphosa to assist Eskom repay it’s interest. The group debt burden amounts to some R450bn

The municipalities recently threatened with disconnection by Eskom, are Bloemfontein, Mafuba and Mantsopa. This comes after repeated failure to adhere to or honor payment agreements. These were agreed to by the municipalities and Eskom itself. So, what exactly are Eskom threatening to do if these municipalities do not pay up?

Eskom said that they would implement the following disconnection actions; Disconnecting the electricity supply to these municipalities between the times 06:00 and 20:00 during weekdays. As well as disconnections on the weekends following the 3rd December. However, they would be allowing power to be supplied over-night. An amount of 8 hours would be allowed for this to take place.

In other news, disconnections would also be facing the city of Soweto and some parts of the greater Gauteng area. This comes after investigations into meter tampering, as well as non-payment of electricity bills. Eskom says that out of the 180 000 electricity meters in Soweto, 120 000 were found to be tampered with. While in other regions of Gauteng, 490 000 out of the 760 000 energy meters, were found to have been tampered with.

The post Eskom’s Municipal Disconnection Operation appeared first on Powertime.

Currently employed as the CEO at NAMPAK, the largest packaging company Africa. He has been employed in this role for the past 5 years. He has a LLB and MBA, from the university of South  Africa and Pretoria respectively.

He has spent more than 20 years with SASOL in senior management roles and has worked in their energy and chemicals industries. This included overseeing work  in the US, Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Germany and China.

The 50 year old has had an amazing career inside the boardroom for quite a number of years. However, the task he faces in his new role requires harder work than he’s arguably ever had to deal with before.

So what was the reaction like to the news? Below we note some of the reactions on the appointment:

Political Parties

ANC – “The responsibility accepted by Mr De Ruyter is one that must be shared by all South Africans whose well-being depends on the well-being of the energy utility.”

DA – “With experience in both the private and public sectors, he has a wealth of experience and we implore upon him to use this experience to set Eskom on the right course to recovery,”

EFF, unsurprisingly dismissed the appointment – as “anti-transformation and racist”, calling it “a clear demonstration of deliberate intent to collapse Eskom to rationalise privatisation”.

TRUE LEADER: Andre de Ruyter. Pic: Geoff Brown. © Unknown.

The post Who is Eskom’s New CEO? appeared first on Powertime.

Everytime these unplanned breakdown’s occur, Eskom needs to utilize emergency resources of diesel and pumped water storage schemes at a higher rate. This is implemented when unplanned breakdowns rise above 9500MW. This increases the risk over rotational power-cuts to lessen the burden on the grid. In the press release, it was mentioned that they have sufficient diesel to run it;s open cycle gas turbines and water for its pumped storage schemes to supplement the shortage of capacity.

In the statement, they had the following to say :

“The probability of load shedding remains, but will only be implemented if absolutely necessary”

–

So keep your eyes out on any news when it comes to load-shedding, in the next few weeks. But we will definitely be keeping an our out on this for and keep you updated.

The post Capacity In Danger Zone – Says Eskom appeared first on Powertime.

This is the case at the time of writing but there still remains the strong possibility that the stage level will be upgraded to stage two, and this could even be a possibility today and definitely going into the weekend. This despite Eskom CEO, Jabu Mabuza saying that load-shedding should cease by this weekend. The current load-shedding implementation has been blamed on boiler leaks at 6 different power generating units, although some of these units are now online. Mabuza went further on to stress the fact that some the current power generation fleet has an average age of 36 years.

Another factor that contributed to the rolling black out, was the failure of the conveyor belt feeding coal from Exxaro’s Grootegeluk mine to the Medupi power station in Lephalale, Limpopo. The conveyor belt, which transports an average of 4000 tons of coal to the Medupi plant, per hour, reportedly broke down on Saturday. Mabuza mentioned in the presser, that a huge contingent of expertise has been dispatched to the area and he expects the machinery to be up and running by next week, Wednesday.  Whether load-shedding will stay away this weekend or not, remains to be seen then..

Currently, coal is being transported to the Medupi powerplant by means of bulldozers. Eskom, also has had to make use of open cycle gas turbines to cater for the current electricity shortfall. The issue with this, and it was an issue back in March as well, is that diesel stocks are incredibly expensive and current stocks are running low. This also contributes to the load-shedding situation. Mabuza said that Eskom is using much less diesel that it has in the past. In the past financial year, Eskom burnt diesel worth R6bn to keep the lights on in South Africa – in  the year to date, it only used R500m.

Please ensure that you check your schedule to see how you are affected and remember to protect your appliances from power surge by switching them off at the wall sockets before load-shedding commences.

The post Stage 1 load-shedding current , Stage 2 possibility appeared first on Powertime.