Staff Reporter
At least 92 houses in Ngwathe Local Municipality in northern Free State have been drawing electricity directly from the main supply lines without any meters installed to measure and regulate their consumption, an official has said.
Municipal spokesperson Steve Nale told The Free Stater in a telephone interview Thursday that illegal connections were putting a major strain on their supplies, thereby prompting them to revamp the electricity meter system in the municipality.
The municipality has also approached Eskom to increase the amount of electricity it receives as it has now been forced to resort to load shedding due to increased demand.
“That’s the sad reality, unfortunately,” said Nale.
“We have so many people with illegal connections and that’s putting a major strain on our supplies.
“We found about 92 houses that didn’t have any meters and they were just getting electricity direct from the pole, which is very dangerous.
“Also, when people don’t pay for electricity, we don’t generate any revenue.”
Nale said they were faced with three scenarios regarding the electricity meters and some of them are now being replaced in order to have a regulated consumption.
“Some of the meters are faulty, maybe due to age, and some have been tampered with. Such meters have to be replaced,” he said.
“We also have those houses without any meters, yet they are drawing electricity. We have to install new ones there.”
Nale said local councillors are moving around with the teams inspecting and replacing the electricity meters to ensure there is no resistance from residents who could mistake the people for conmen.
Ngwathe municipality currently owes Eskom about R1 billion but it has been forced to enter into negotiations for increased supplies so that businesses and other law-abiding residents are not affected by load shedding.
“We have a payment arrangement with Eskom which we have never defaulted on,” Nale said.
“Our revenues are low but we are trying our best to honour our obligations so that residents and businesses don’t suffer.”
Eskom provincial spokesperson Stefanie Jansen van Rensburg confirmed in a statement that Ngwathe municipality had approached the national power utility for an increase in supplies.
“Ngwathe Local Municipality and Eskom had a second engagement on the amount of electricity supplied to the municipality, also known as Notified Maximum Demand (NMD),” read part of the statement.
NMD is the contracted amount of electricity that Eskom reserves for supplying a customer in the Electricity Supply Agreement.
In terms of this agreement, Eskom is contractually obliged to provide 21 mega volt amp (MVA) to Ngwathe municipality.
Van Rensburg said on May 25 the municipality exceeded its contracted NMD and Eskom subsequently applied NMD limitation in order to keep the amount within the contracted agreement.
Confirming Nale’s explanation, Van Rensburg said a major contributor going beyond the NMD is meter tampering and or illegal connections.
“As a result of these illegal activities, the municipality is unable to recover income and pay Eskom for services rendered,” she said.
“Paying customers unfortunately are impacted by consumers that opt to tamper and or connect illegally.”
In terms of the NMD limitation, a municipality is informed when the NMD reaches 90 percent of its load so it can apply load reduction.
If the municipality does not respond by reducing its demand, Eskom is forced to open its supply breaker, resulting in interruption of supply to the municipality.
NMD limiting, according to the statement, is a necessity to ensure that essential equipment is not stressed which can lead to damage and failure when design limits are exceeded.
Ultimately, NMD limiting is implemented to ensure the integrity of the system and protection of the community in which the equipment is hosted.
“Ngwathe Local Municipality has resubmitted an application to increase the amount of electricity supplied in the agreement. NMD increase is not automatically granted by Eskom as there are conditions that must be accepted by defaulting municipalities,” she said in the statement.
Van Rensburg said in a written response that Ngwathe is applying for an upgrade of about seven points to their current level of 21 MVA.