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Cape Town - Over R2bn is lost annually by Eskom due to electricity theft, Eskom told Fin24 on Monday.
"Combating illegal connections and collecting debt owed to Eskom would help stabilise the power network and also improve the company’s cash flows," it said.
"The losses suffered by the country as a whole when including municipalities, is at least double the Eskom figure."
Debt collection from municipalities and small power users remains a concern and Eskom said it is working closely with the department of public enterprises, the co-operative governance and traditional affairs (CoGTA) department and Treasury at both provincial and national level to address the systemic causes of the municipal arrear debt.
At a local municipality level, Eskom has made available cross-functional teams to share best practices in managing electricity portfolios.
The total municipal arrear debt remains high at R4bn as at September 30 2014. Municipalities in Free State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga have fallen back in terms of settling their accounts to Eskom.
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Soweto debt at R4bn
"The Soweto debt alone stood at R4bn in the six months to September 2014. Last year 4 838 defaulting customers were disconnected, which is not enough to curb the debt," said Eskom.
"The implementation of the residential revenue management strategy, which includes Soweto revenue management, will assist to improve future revenue streams."
The residential revenue management strategy, which includes Soweto, is critical to enhance energy protection and energy loss programmes and improve debt collection for Soweto, as well as for large and small power users.
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The strategy entails:
- The installation of split metering with protective enclosures and converting customers to prepaid meters with new supply group codes to eliminate illegal prepaid vending;
- There is now a focused credit management process for all businesses, which, together with disconnections, should assist in recovering outstanding debt;
- Eskom teams have conducted more than two million audits of electricity meters and installations and removed over 80 000 illegal connections across the country and imposed R43m in tamper fines between 2010 and 2013. Tamper fines of up to R5 000 were imposed for reconnection.
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