IDK. There are lots of stories going around Johannesburg in which City Power come to tell you you haven’t been paying, and then you say “but I have solar”, to which they respond “oh well then, we’re going to cut you off from the grid.”
These may be embellished a bit. It certainly is the case that if you don’t feed your prepaid meter for three straight months then it gets flagged for disconnection (after an investigation).
There is lots of small print around these meters that is never spelled out and so the public are unaware of it. I became aware of the every third month requirement when I caught an Uber one morning, and got a driver whose side hustle is installing pre-paid meters for the City.
Another is that you are not supposed to build up a credit that exceeds an average one month’s use. It used to be the case that the first 500 units in the month were the cheapest (it is now the first 350) and so if you were averaging 400 a month (and I was) then you could buy the cheap 500 and bank 100 (and I did) and after a year you’d have a nice piggy bank full of cheap units (and I did).
Another is that if your meter goes pop (and mine did) and they do a “temporary restoration” (IE they bypass the meter) then there is no carry over of credit when the new meter is installed. But you only had a couple of week’s worth, didn’t you?
I’m sure all of this is on page 79 of a PDF that is downloadable somewhere, but in the real world these rules are quite complex, numerous, and you generally find out the hard way.
Which is a long winded way of saying that
- City Power certainly think they can disconnect you when it suits them (which they have to be able to do in the case of illegal connections or non-payment).
- Nobody knows or not if it is possible to apply to go off grid.
All the above applies to City Power only. That’s who I deal with.