May 28, 2003
By Thomas Thale
WITHIN the short space of its existence, City Power, the City-owned utility that distributes electricity to residential and corporate clients in Johannesburg, has managed to upgrade its infrastructure and improve street lighting and customer service.
Under the leadership of MK Mohlala, company CEO, City Power recorded a profit of R12-million after tax in the last financial year, its first year of existence.
The City of Johannesburg has allocated an amount of R246-million for the utility's capital projects in the 2003/04 financial year. This figure represents a massive 43% of the city's expenditure on utilities, agencies and corporate entities (UACs) and a 20% increase over the R190-million allocated last year. Much of the expenditure will go towards projects such as network upgrading, service connection, township reticulation and meter installation.
City Power buys electricity from Eskom and from the Kelvin power station and distributes it to businesses and suburbs across the city.
The company has committed itself to providing electricity to 4 000 additional households per year. City Power has also striven to improve the quality of supply while, at the same time, dealing with backlogs.
In an effort to improve its service delivery, the company has now taken over the billing of 11 000 key customers, mainly corporate clients. Since City Power took over the reading of both water and electricity meters, meter reading has increased to 90%, and 50kwh of free power has been rolled out to each household in the city.
Among the challenges facing the company are eliminating illegal connections, improving billing and reducing cost per unit of energy purchased. The company has also set itself a target of reducing operating expenditure by 5%, increasing its turnover by 8% and reducing its debtors' days from the current 45 to 30 days.
