GEORGE NEWS - The George Municipality's average electricity price increase will be 7,47% as from Friday 1 July. 

The new tariffs will be linked to chosen or applied capacity, which means that consumers will need to manage their demand within that chosen or applied capacity. 

The applicable fixed cost will be applied for the chosen or applied capacity.

The majority of consumers, those using less than 700kWh/m, should be on 20amp (4 600 Watts) as this provides adequate capacity if the load is managed. This option will ensure that the price increase will not be more than the average increase.

Possible way in which a domestic consumer can manage their electricity use to ensure that they don't exceed the 20amp include the following:

• Fridges, freezers, internet modems, alarms, etc can remain on the whole day.

• Either in the morning when getting up or the evening when getting home, lights, radio, hi-fi, TV, decoder chargers, fans and other such low-power appliances can be switched on as required.

• For cooking / food preparation, users should stagger the use of their high-power appliances. For example, let the kettle boil first, then use your microwave oven to defrost or warm some food, then use appliances like the food processor or toaster, and only after these have been used, switch on the stove plates to complete the food preparation.

• Stoves with big ovens can be a problem as some of them have elements totalling 4 000Watt. The oven should not be switched on at the same time as any of the electrical plates. It can be used separately, but care should be taken when using the main element and grill at the same time. Check the rating of your oven.

• Once food preparation is complete, appliances such as heaters, hair dryers and irons can be used. Some heaters have very big elements, as much as 4 000Watt. Heater total load should not exceed 4 000Watt.

• High-power appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers should only be switched on when cooking and space heating is completed. Some of these can be loaded ahead of time and only switched on when other heating appliances are switched off, such as before going to bed or to work.

• Geysers generally have elements of 2 000 to 3 000Watt. These can be switched on and off using the geyser circuit breaker on the distribution board, but it is recommended that users install a timer that only switch them on during the night and/or at specific times during the day. Recommended timer switch-on times are shown below. These times should not overlap with the use of other high-power appliances:

• 24:00 - 04:00 Night-time on for main heating of water

• 14:00 - 16:00 Daytime boost top-up if required

• Most geysers are controlled by the municipality through a remote-control system. Currently geysers are switched off during the morning and evening peak periods.

Bigger supply

If your normal household is of such a nature that these load management measures are too inconvenient, or your circuit breaker keeps on tripping, you must consider selecting a slightly bigger supply such as 30Amp.

Various other options also exist such as converting cooking and space heating to gas, installing thermal insulation in the house or installing a solar water heating system.

Please follow the media and visit the George Municipality website at  for further information which will assist consumers in understanding the new tariffs, knowing what capacity to select and how to manage their loads within the selected capacity.

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