Benefits of A Prepayment System

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Benefits of A Prepayment System

• Elimination of connection and disconnection costs
• Improved cash flow Electricity paid for before
  use.
• Consumer can budget and manage his electricity
  more effectively.
• No re-connection fees
• No deposit required
• No meter reading necessary
• Reduced billing cost (Printing mailing)
• Convenience of electricity purchases
• No more billing estimates
• Will pay for used power only
• Improved security of buildings

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Problems Associated with Conventional Prepayment
Meters

• Single-Purpose-Built Prepayment Meters regularly
  develop faults when compared to conventional
  smart meters
• Must be sent back to manufacturer for repairs or
  scrapped, generating additional costs or new
  equipment purchases
• Power theft becomes paramount
• People find ways to beat system
• Small constant purchases
• Bridging of meters

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Problems Associatedwith Prepaid Meters

• Power theft increases losses which force
  increases of tariffs to compensate --
• All rate-payers lose
• More customer revolt
• Prepaid meters are stolen or deliberately
  destroyed in some areas
• Lack of trained staff has cost some
  Municipalities dearly
• In some instances staff is trained but not
  managed properly, so system does not get managed
  properly, causing damage and service disruptions
• Maintenance in prepaid meter deployed areas is
  much higher
• Prepaid meters require more maintenance

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Problems Associated withPrepaid Meters

• Regular inspections have to be carried out on
  metering installations
• Auditing prepayment systems downloads
• Checking for bridged-out meters
• Not temper proof and cannot be monitored easily
• Return on investment for prepaid meters is
  non-existent in some areas
• When units of 80kWh are used, income and profit
  are so small it cannot even pay off the prepaid
  equipment loan
• Changing technology makes prepaid meters out of
  date too soon and in many cases prepaid systems
  have been changed due to new requirements by the
  consumer and government -- such as free basic
  electricity
• Rate-payers expect more tariff flexibility with
  prepaid meters
• more trained customer service staff are required
  to cope with these new requests

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Problems AssociatedWith Prepaid Meters

• Paying power vendors - costs the municipality did
  not have before -- vary between 3 and 6
• Prepayment system must be administered on a daily
  basis
• Customer tariffs have to cover up to three times
  more in capital outlay for a prepayment system
  than on a conventional system

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TWUs Approach ToPrepayment Plan Customers

• The short-sighted deployment of prepaid meters
  will simply create additional CapEx losses as
  they are targeted by increasingly irate
  consumers.
• There can be no distinction between any smart
  meter deployed, regardless of its consumer
  account configuration (a matter to be left to
  software programming in the central energy
  management system).
• If a power theft is detected then all adjoining
  (subordinate and supercedent) user connections
  can be suspended until the thief is identified
  and the theft rectified.

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TWUs Approach To Prepayment Plan Customers

• Smart grid applications are needed to make the
  local power distribution grid self-aware
• Capable of detecting and shutting down illegal
  connections without the physical intervention of
  outside plant personnel.
• Remote monitoring,
• Distribution automation sensors, and
• Smart meters
• Fully integrated over a broadband network by a
  dedicated local energy distribution management
  system
• Precluding implication of outside plant personnel
  in power theft.

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Who Is TWU?

• South African BEE Company
• National ECNS ECS Licences in SA
• Will Acquire Similar Licences in Zimbabwe
• Experienced Management Team
• World-class Telecom / AMI partners
• World-class Technology Solutions
• Committed to Customer Satisfaction

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TWUs ROLE

• Provide Internet access services, along with
  pay-as-you-go business-to-business services
• Procure, implement, and operate a wholesale local
  fulfillment service for all cellular network
  carriers offering mobile calls in ZESA Zimbabwe
  metro area
• Provide no-cost metro, and low-cost national VoIP
  calls to all ZESA Zimbabwe metro customer sites

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BENEFITS

• TWU Responsibilities
• Technology Procurement
• Implementation
• Interoperable Management
• Three Separate Management Systems
• TWU Charges on a Pay-as-Used Basis for All
  Managed Services

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