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Cape Town - Illegal electricity connections cost Eskom and municipalities about R4.4bn in the 2009 financial year, Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters said on Thursday.
"This would be more than 5% of turnover, indicating the seriousness of the problem," said Peters in reply to a question in parliament.
While total electricity sales for the year in question amounted to 214 850 GWh, the total losses (technical and non-technical) came to 11 706 GWh.
A gigawatt is equal to one thousand megawatts. According to Eskom, which needs to finance a multi-billion rand generation programme, 11 706 GWh could electrify 500 000 South African homes at any given time.
"The assumption is that this figure [losses] includes 33.3% to 50% of non-technical losses in the form of theft. That implies theft losses range from 4 100 GWh to 5 850 GWh," said Peters.
If the losses took place among residential customers who bought electricity at an average of 62c per kWh, the financial implications ranged from R2.5bn to R3.6bn a year.
According to Peters, however, the fact that most of these illegal connections would qualify for free electricity exacerbates the problem as well as the risk of electrocution.
"If these illegal connections were legal, it's likely they would have qualified for government's free basic electricity programme. If each connection was using the average of 180 kWh per month, it means the free basic electricity would have reduced the losses to around 72% of the above values and the loss would be reduced to R1.8bn to R2.6bn per year.
"This means that with Eskom and municipal supplies combined, and taking into account the impact of the free basic electricity programme, the financial value amounts to R4.4bn of lost revenue due to electricity theft."
- Fin24.com
"This would be more than 5% of turnover, indicating the seriousness of the problem," said Peters in reply to a question in parliament.
While total electricity sales for the year in question amounted to 214 850 GWh, the total losses (technical and non-technical) came to 11 706 GWh.
A gigawatt is equal to one thousand megawatts. According to Eskom, which needs to finance a multi-billion rand generation programme, 11 706 GWh could electrify 500 000 South African homes at any given time.
"The assumption is that this figure [losses] includes 33.3% to 50% of non-technical losses in the form of theft. That implies theft losses range from 4 100 GWh to 5 850 GWh," said Peters.
If the losses took place among residential customers who bought electricity at an average of 62c per kWh, the financial implications ranged from R2.5bn to R3.6bn a year.
According to Peters, however, the fact that most of these illegal connections would qualify for free electricity exacerbates the problem as well as the risk of electrocution.
"If these illegal connections were legal, it's likely they would have qualified for government's free basic electricity programme. If each connection was using the average of 180 kWh per month, it means the free basic electricity would have reduced the losses to around 72% of the above values and the loss would be reduced to R1.8bn to R2.6bn per year.
"This means that with Eskom and municipal supplies combined, and taking into account the impact of the free basic electricity programme, the financial value amounts to R4.4bn of lost revenue due to electricity theft."
- Fin24.com
