Latest news with #MarcDuPlessis
News24
2 days ago
- Business
- News24
SA faces municipal electricity hikes 4 times above inflation: How to fight back with solar
South African households are bracing for yet another financial blow as municipalities are set to roll out electricity tariff hikes of up to 14% from 1 July 2025, an increase that is roughly 4 to 5 times more than the current inflation rate of 2.8%. Earlier this year, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved an 11.32% increase in the wholesale electricity price that Eskom charges municipalities for more than 130 municipalities. Major metros, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Ekurhuleni, will implement increases exceeding 12%, continuing the decade-long trend of electricity costs outpacing inflation. Despite many municipalities requesting higher retail increases, NERSA capped tariffs in most cases, citing the need to address several critical issues. These issues include poor financial controls, high energy losses, and inefficiencies in municipal operations that have been plaguing local authorities and contributing to the ongoing challenges within South Africa's electricity distribution network. Finding savings through solar energy Marc du Plessis, Executive Head of LookSee, Standard Bank's home efficiency platform, says that the increase will have serious financial implications for households and that to manage them, households need to start looking at emerging solar offerings as more of a cost-saving investment rather than a loadshedding backup. 'There are some expenses that aren't in your control, like how much Pikitup charges you or how much your municipal rates are. But you can change your energy consumption habits and look at producing your own energy. Electricity costs are one of the few elements on your municipal bill that you can actually do something about,' said Du Plessis. Now, wrapping your head around finding the best solar system for your needs might be daunting, but LookSee is here to help you every step of the way in your journey to saving money and beating the electricity hikes. LookSee offers homeowners cost-saving, energy-efficient solutions, including solar-powered water heating technologies, alongside tools to reduce utility bills. These services are available to all households, regardless of who they bank with. 'What we're trying to do is educate and help homes understand how to maximise their savings through solar. You don't have to spend huge amounts of money; there are ways of getting into the renewable energy space, there are ways to make changes,' he said. LookSee recently launched its Smart Saving Journey that gives you a clear view of your home's electricity use, highlights ways to cut costs, and helps you run a more efficient home in just a few clicks. How the Smart Saving Journey works Step 1: Share your home information The journey begins with you providing basic information about your home. You'll answer simple questions about your property's floor area, your typical electricity consumption patterns, and your current monthly bills. If you already have any solar installations, you'll mention these details too. This information helps the system create a personalised analysis specific to your household's unique energy situation. Step 2: Receive your personalised energy dashboard Once you've provided your information, LookSee generates a comprehensive dashboard that gives you a clear picture of your home's energy profile. This includes your Home Efficiency Score (rated from A to E), which shows how efficiently your home uses electricity compared to similar sized properties in your area. You'll also receive a Solar Score that indicates how suitable your home is for solar power generation based on factors like sunlight exposure. The dashboard highlights specific savings insights, pointing out areas where you could potentially reduce your electricity costs. Step 3: Explore your savings opportunities After reviewing your potential monthly savings on your dashboard, you can request a call from LookSee's Energy Advisors for assistance with your savings journey or explore its Knowledge Hub for a variety of expert articles aimed at helping you save money and manage and improve your home efficiently. Step 5: Connect with experts If you're ready to target significant savings on your electricity bill, then requesting a callback is definitely the way to go. Using sophisticated calculators that analyse your family's current electricity usage, LookSee's energy experts are not only able to identify the best solutions for your needs, but can also provide reliable insights into your expected savings from month one all the way up to 10 years. 'We have done a very deep analysis on what an average home looks like from a consumption perspective. What we do is look at the home electricity consumption in three parts: water heating costs, daytime load - so, what is happening during the day in your house, and nighttime load. If you understand those three mechanisms to start with, we can start to help with decisions based on the highest impact on savings to the lowest possible investment,' Du Plessis explained.
The Citizen
3 days ago
- Business
- The Citizen
Here's how to manage household electricity usage as municipal tariff increases kick in
More electricity hikes are coming after municipalities received approval to go ahead with increases of up to 14%. Newly approved electricity hikes will come into effect tomorrow and will have households scratching their heads as to how much more they can limit their usage. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) approved tariff increases between 4 to 5 times higher than latest inflation figures for over 100 municipalities in recent weeks, placing strain on consumers across the country. Alarm over the increases was illustrated by Nersa's comment that a record number of objections and submissions by affected customers were received from individual households. High tariff increases Nersa approved an 11.32% increase in Eskom's wholesale prices to municipalities earlier this year, but these municipalities made individual applications for increases for their own customers. Metropolitan municipalities covering Johannesburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Gqeberha and East London will have their electricity increase between 12.4% and 12.8% from 1 July. The City of Tshwane customers escaped with a 10.2% increase, while those in Ekurhuleni were slapped with a 13.4% increase. 2025 municipal electricity tariff hikes Municipality Increase Buffalo City 12.74% City of Cape Town 12.8%* City of eThekwini 12.72% City of Tshwane 10.20% City Power (Johannesburg) 12.41% Ekurhuleni Metropolitan 13.40% Mangaung Municipality 12.40% Nelson Mandela Bay 12.80% * Cape Town's increase is based on Nersa's approved 2024/25 tariffs. The City implemented a 4.5% higher increase in 2024, which is currently the subject of ongoing legal proceedings. Among the reasons Nersa used to justify limiting even higher increases were poor financial performance, mounting municipal debt and high energy losses, essentially preventing the results of mismanagement being passed onto the consumer. Winter pressure on bills Electricity bills are naturally higher in winter and these added costs could plunge households headfirst into a billing abyss. Standard Bank's LookSee home efficiency platform has continued to keep customers at the forefront of their thinking, understanding the strife facing everyday South Africans. 'We keep having to deal with these above inflation increases for what is an essential service. It is painful not to have access to electricity, but at this stage it is becoming an affordability issue,' said LookSee Executive Head Marc Du Plessis. To propel its drive to create eco-conscious electricity customers that prioritise savings, LookSee has formulated a two-pronged solution to change and monitor behaviour. 'Behaviour is all about habits and habits can be changed. They may be hard to break but it is possible to make a shift that has a fundamental impact on your pocket,' advises Du Plessis. He notes that there are two variable municipal charges that households can do something about — electricity and water — and by evaluating the usage of those, increases can be absorbed or even offset. Household savings a sought-after destination LookSee's newly launched Smart Save journey is a tool to help households better understand their energy efficiency and plan ways to close any previously unseen gaps. Freely available on the LookSee platform, the Smart Save journey cross-references in-depth geographical, electricity consumption standards and municipal information with a household's unique specifications to enable users to make accurate energy decisions. 'The Smart Save journey is a commitment to not only helping households save, but to giving them reliable information and insights into what their comparable costs are,' states Du Plessis. Coupled with the Energy Efficiency Score that measures how efficiently a household consumes electricity, each home can build their own energy profile. 'We really believe that by empowering households with knowledge and insights, they can then do more in their own homes to manage their monthly costs and put money back into their budget,' he explains.
