MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Mossel Bay's portfolio chair for Infrastructure Services, Councillor Anton Dellemijn, and the acting municipal manager, Director Dick Naidoo, also the director of Infrastructure Services, on Tuesday welcomed National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) representatives, who will be doing an important compliance audit.
Under Section 4(a) (vii) of the Electricity Regulation Act, 2006 (Act No. 4 of 2006), the NERSA conducts compliance audits on electricity distributors on an annual basis.
The Mossel Bay Municipality has been selected as one of the licensees to be audited for the 2021 calendar year.
The purpose of the audit is to evaluate the municipality's compliance with electricity licence conditions and to familiarise NERSA with the management of the electricity business and the electricity networks of the Mossel Bay local municipality.
At the end of the audit, a report will be prepared by the NERSA audit team and submitted to Mossel Bay Municipality management for comments and further actions.
Typically the audit reports contain recommendations for improvements, where necessary, and might trigger follow-up inspections by NERSA, based on the timelines set for rectification of any non-compliance issues, if any.
The audit is comprehensive and looks at all aspects of the electrical distribution business of the municipality, from the bulk purchases at Eskom supply points to the quality of service and supply rendered to consumers in the municipal area. The audit team will also be inspecting various substations and network sites as part of the audit, which takes place over three days.
Documentary proof must be provided of, among others, the following:
- resources used (staffing / equipment / vehicles)
- health and safety
- training and apprenticeships
- financial information (ratios of finance spent on maintenance of the network and bulk purchases)
- status of Eskom accounts (fully paid up in Mossel Bay's case)
- asset management and maintenance plans
- strategic planning, including load growth
- tariff setting, and compliance with tariffs as approved by NERSA
- quality of service (how Mossel Bay handle consumers and their accounts, queries, complaints, meter readings, penalties and disconnections)
- quality of supply (Is the electrical supply to end-users within acceptable standards?), and
- emergency plans.
Councillor Dellemijn said it was the first such audit in Mossel Bay in many a year, although NERSA audits were conducted at neighbouring munici-palities in recent years.
Portfolio chair for Infrastructure Services, Councillor Anton Dellemijn (back, right) and the acting municipal manager, Director Dick Naidoo (front, left) welcomed a NERSA delegation who are conducting a compliance audit in Mossel Bay.
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