We had a positive and constructive meeting with a team of 7 personnel from NERSA on 14th February 2018 which was also attended by the CEO and one of the Directors of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business.It was agreed that NERSA, together with ourselves as the End-User, would establish an End-User Forum in terms of the Electricity Regulation Act which will formalize our role as the End-User and give us more legitimacy and more legal clout to resolve our electricity supply issues.
We prepared draft Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Forum and submitted them to NERSA. They eventually responded with their version which was very similar to ours. These drafts are sufficient for us to develop as the Forum.
NERSA undertook to set the date for the first meeting and to invite all relevant role-players, especially Msunduzi and uMngeni LM’s, whether they want to attend or not. We are awaiting confirmation of the meeting date and will follow up with NERSA in this regard.
The Elec Task Teams Technical Portfolio has been following up with Msunduzi’s technical staff to discuss the current status and the plans going forward. Alas to no avail despite considerable efforts.
We certainly need to apply a lot more pressure on Msunduzi.
Hilton Residents are requested to continue saving electricity (and water for that matter) and to investigate alternative sources of energy such as solar and gas. This would be an opportune time to service generators in preparation for the colder months.
The process of trying to sort out our electricity supply is slow and not under our control, we have to wait for inefficient Government bodies & parastatals to respond. All this whilst winter fast approaches which will see the Hilton load spike, and as a result, stress the already stressed network leading to supply interruptions.”
News supplied by Hilton Ratepayers Association.