City Power will continue installing smart meters across Johannesburg now that it has been cleared of allegations of corruption and fraud in the awarding of its smart meters tender, it said on Sunday.
In the past eight months it had installed 153 of the new electricity meters in Ferndale, in Randburg, and 2 500 at large power users in Johannesburg, as part of a project business trial, GM Sol Masolo said in a statement.
The business trial, which ends on Friday, would be followed by the installation of 50 000 smart meters by June, as part of the first phase of the roll-out, which would be completed by October 2015, he said.
City Power was hoping to install between 10 000 and 12 000 meters a month.
Masolo said smart meters could operate in either post-paid or prepaid mode. They enable the remote reading of exact electricity consumption in real time, and send an alarm when power is lost or interrupted.
He said City Power had done a pre-installation audit in 50 suburbs, and community communication there would start soon.
Some of those suburbs were Ferndale, Franklin Roosevelt Park, Langlaagte, Berario, Linden, Glenvista, Crown Gardens, Fairland, Sandringham, Brixton and Parkhurst. — Sapa
