Electricity the smart way

In 2012, Lephalale became the first municipality to start the process of converting to a smart meter system for the distribution of electricity to residential units, managed by SPASA (Spatial Planning Agency of Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd).
It has since been a long process of gathering data and preparing the town for the installation of the metres. Meters have already been installed in Kerk-, Gompou- and Waterbessie Streets. Using Wi-Fi technology every home will soon be connected to a system that allows SPASA and residents to monitor their electricity usage on a daily basis.
The state of the art technology allows residents to choose between a pre- or post-paid system and to monitor usage and buy electricity from a cell phone (no access to the internet needed).  "You can be in Cape Town and still buy electricity when it runs low," explains Bob Naidoo, municipal manager at the Lephalale municipality. Naidoo is very excited about the potential to save electricity and eradicate illegal connections. "We believe that by knowing how much is spent on electricity on a daily basis, residents will use electricity sparingly.  What helps us as a municipality is the fact that illegal connections will instantly be picked up on the system," he explained.
Additional and optional technology can also be installed in your home which will indicate electricity and water usage on a monitor, mounted on your wall. Also optional is an appliance regulator that will allow residents to request SPASA to switch off certain appliances at specific times in order to save electricity. Residents will be able to view consumption on the internet on a daily basis. Pre-paid residents will still receive a statement indicating hourly consumption and payment details.
Should Lephalale run low on electricity supply, SPASA could implement load shedding on specific homes, instead of the whole town. People with medical equipment in their homes can also apply to be exempted from load shedding. SPASA will warn resident of any load shedding ahead of time. Pre-paid customers will be warned via SMS when their electricity supply runs low, more electricity can then be bought, using a cell phone. These are only some of the benefits to the new smart meter system.  SPASA will soon start a sub project to acquire resident's cell phone numbers and other information in order to fully convert to the new system. Meetings are planned with council members to facilitate communication, scheduling and resident data capture.