AMEU President Rob Ferrier chatted to ESI Africa Editor-in-Chief Nicolette Pombo-van Zyl about the practical progress AMEU member utilities are building on and the strategic priorities and operational challenges they will explore at their next Convention in Polokwane in October.
Ferrier explained that the top challenges are prioritising at the Association of Municipal Electricity Utility’s annual convention are electricity regulation and the influence it will have on the structure of the electricity market and manner in which municipalities will need to operate within it.
“We need to ensure that the municipalities’ rights are protected during this time as municipalities will need to move to a different model of providing electricity and ensuring revenue is maintained,” he said.
Municipalities in South Africa are rethinking their role
Another concern that will be a hot topic of discussion will be how high electricity tariffs are impacting municipal customers. “We are seeing more and more of our consumers moving to SSEG on the roof, which is taking revenue away from the electricity utilities,” Ferrier admitted.
“Therefore, municipalities need to ensure that they look at the best method of how we use these SSEGs. There are opportunities there to try and compensate for the revenue loss.”
The discussion also goes into
- issues of vandalism and theft;
- modernisation of security measures;
- ageing infrastructure;
- implementing effective intelligent networks to accommodate changes like wheeling;
- risks and opportunities in National Treasury’s Metro Trading Services Reform
- Why AMEU and SALGA need to bring smaller municipalities into the fold; and
- What first-time delegates can expect at the 2026 AMEU Convention.
Now watch AMEU Convention: Discussing the local municipal procurement pipeline
