Smart metering is going to hurt
Smart
metering is on the way, so are higher electricity bills – much higher. Just
lately, we have seen the pace of smart meter deployment increasing in most
municipalities.
This
the start of the long-awaited roll-out of smart metering of electricity that
was legislated some years back. After initial delays the roll-out is now set to
take off.
This
means that every old-style meter (round rotating disc type) is set to be
replaced by digital smart meters. This was due to implemented by 2011 but due
to administrative delays in tendering (read corruption, etc) in various
municipalities the roll-out is only taking off now.
The
major motivation behind this is to introduce time-of-day (ToD) billing. This means you will a pay different rate for
electricity during peak and off-peak periods – which is fair enough. This is, after all, how Eskom bills your
municipality. You can expect to pay as
much as six to 10 times during peak period than off-peak.
What
isn’t fair is that sneaky levies and demand charges and the like can now be
added to your bill at a drop of a hat.
It’s
no secret that electricity revenues cross-subsidise other sources of revenue in
most municipalities. Electricity is seen
as the cash cow.
So
what to do? Well, it’s simple; reduce your dependency on the grid by deploying
a roof-top solar PV system as many consumers have already done.
What’s
different now is that solar PV energy is about to become a lot more affordable
– compared to your ToD electricity bill, that is.
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