Fwd: Kouga Municipality Electricity Accounts Unfair and Inflated

[in...@jbayra.com]

Electricity tariffs in Kouga are based on a sliding scale, with the tariff amount increasing significantly with increasing usage. The Kouga Municipality(KM) follows an irregular meter reading program, with meter reading periods varying from 26 days up to 41 days. The varying length of each billing period has a serious effect on the amount billed, pushing medium usage residents into the punitive high usage bracket. This leads to significantly inflated electricity bills despite the average usage remaining the same throughout the period.

This is completely unfair  to residents, although it is greatly to the benefit of the municipality who get increased revenue for no increase in usage. When a punitive sliding scale of tariffs is used, it is absolutely essential that a consistent time period for measurement be employed. This is both logical and obvious.

Using a varying time scale would be like allowing the SA Revenue Service to choose what time period to assess your income, sometimes over 6 months, and sometimes over 18 months. The fact that you will be pushed into a higher tax bracket over the 18 months measurement would be unfair and unconstitutional.

There is a simple and widely adopted solution to this variable period metering and billing problem. The year is broken up into 13 periods, 12 periods of 28 days and the last period of 29 days, giving exactly 365 days. Meters can be read at any time and any frequency within this period of 365 days. An average daily usage for the metering period is calculated. This average daily usage is then simply pro-rata’d to the appropriate 28 day segments. This ensures that the billing against the sliding scale is always for a consistent number of days.

The Jeffreys Bay Residents Association has taken up this matter with the officials at the KM. A report from a JBRA committee member appears below. We have also developed an Excel spreadsheet which residents can use to record and analyse their electricity expenditure. This spreadsheet shows how your electricity costs are distributed across the sliding scale, and the cost to you of inconsistent billing periods pushing you into higher usage categories. All you have to do is enter the start and end billing dates and Total kilowatt hours used from your monthly KM account.  If sufficient interest is shown, this spreadsheet can be extended to include water and sewerage billing as well.

Although the KM will undoubtedly protest that their software cannot handle this change, or that it requires a council decision, or that they cannot afford the loss of revenue, that is entirely their problem. In these difficult financial times, Jeffreys Bay residents should not be paying for unfair and inflated electricity billing, no matter what the excuses.

Administrator - Jeffreys Bay Residents Association/Jeffreysbaai Inwonersvereniging

in...@jbayra.com - www.jbayra.com

[erena]

Yes please I would like the spreadsheet to cover water & sewerage as well. It will be such a help.  Thanks. 

Sent from Samsung tablet

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[erena]

Thanks for helping us, i would certainly use the spreadsheet with water and sewerage. 

[Dave Kan]

Many thanks for the Xcel spreadsheet.

Unfortunately when including the relevant data am presented with a #NAME? response under the "Avg daily" column.

This is carried forward under the Pro Rata to 28 days columns.

 

Am aware of the problem as the calculation contains "=_xlfn.IFERROR(D19/E19.0) and unable to correct as requires a password to unprotect the sheet.

 

Could you please resolve this.

 

Regards

 

Dave Kan

 

[Trevor Watkins]

Hi Dave

Thanks for the information. I assume the problem is due to the iferror function not being available in earlier versions of Excel. I have removed the iferror function in the spreadsheet, hopefully this will now work in all versions. I have also included an unprotected copy of the spreadsheet for those who would like to modify it.

regards

Trevor Watkins - Base Software
bas...@gmail.com 083 44 11 721 - 042 293 1405 - (fax)0866 532 363
PO Box 3302, Jeffreys Bay, 6330

[Dave Kan]

Many thanks Trevor.

 

All up and running.

Can now digest and study your comments.

 

Regards

 

Dave