Conlog Pty (Ltd), Africa`s leading manufacturer of pre-payment electricity, water and solar dispensing systems, has won a multi-million Rand contract to supply electricity meters to the Cape Town City Council.
Conlog anticipates installing approximately 15 000 common base E-Kard electricity meters and 5 000 split E-Kard electricity meters over a period of seven months. The ability to vend standard industry tokens (STS) and a keen pricing strategy were significant reasons for the City Council choosing Conlog technology.
"Although the Cape Town council has bought split electricity dispensers from Conlog in the past, this is the first time they have ordered the common base meters. The latter has obvious benefits for them," says Paul Booth, Divisional Manager of Conlog`s E-Kard Electricity Metering Division.
"The common base type is an ease of installation concept, introduced by Conlog. It consists of the plug in base and separate meter. This allows pre-installation of the base including its wiring. At a later stage, one can merely plug the meter in, seal it and activate the unit. Another advantage is that should a meter fail, the utility does not need to disconnect the electricity to the house as one can remove the active unit and plug in a new one," explains Booth.
The City of Tygerberg has also expressed interest in Conlog`s prepayment electricity meters and has recently purchased 800 units.
Conlog has an impressive track record in the pre-payment electricity dispensing market. In 1994, Eskom standardised the pre-payment electricity dispensing industry around Conlog technology. Most recently the company has won the largest share of the Eskom national contract for the supply of its E-Kard pre-payment dispensing products for 1999.
In South Africa, Conlog has more than 55% of the installed base and has manufactured over 1,6 million pre-payment dispensers.
"There are a number of advantages in using a pre-payment method for the utilities, namely: payment is made up front, there is no meter reading, there are no accounts to be posted, bad debts are eliminated as are disconnection and reconnection fees. Worthy of mention is that fraud is easier to control and the authorities are able to improve their customer service to the community, particularly in the disadvantaged areas." says Booth.
"Aside from being keenly priced, Conlog products are life-cycle tested to international specifications and standards to ensure quality. Through our ISO9001 compliance system, continuous production quality checks are maintained and recorded, and corrective action is immediately taken to prevent supply of inferior products to customers," says Booth.
"In addition our products have a number of advantages to the consumer such as effective budget management, control of electricity consumption, convenient points of sale for purchase of credits, and no cost for disconnection and reconnection," concludes Booth.
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