However, Ekurhuleni has no immediate plans to implement the same system. The City has stated that it will engage timeously with its customers should it decide to make structural changes to tariffs.
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality spokesperson Themba Gadebe said: “The city would like to remind all our customers that Eskom has severe constraints in providing enough electricity to cope with the demand. The load shedding events that take place from time to time is a very real indication of this problem affecting our country. Your assistance in avoiding peak hour consumption, no matter how small it may be, it does add up to a greater total, which may just avoid load shedding on some days.”
Eskom has released a statement announcing their intention to implement a critical peak day pricing pilot project to encourage electricity savings. The Eskom critical peak days will be announced via SMS and email to customers a day before and a reminder on the day. On critical peak days electricity that is used between the hours of 06:00 and 22:00 will be priced significantly higher.
Rates on non-peak days will be lower than the critical peak days. The number of critical peak days will be limited to 17 days a year and will not occur concurrently.
