Tshwane Metro unveils novel locally-developed electricity vending system set to benefit community

The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality made history on 11 August 2005 with the unveiling of the novel Cell Power prepaid electricity vending system.

The event was held in Mamelodi, Tshwane, and officiated by the Executive Mayor, Father S Mkhatshwa, MMC LL Nawa and Cr P Morulane, and attended by a large number of the members of the community.

Cell Power was developed by Expertron, a South African company residing at The Innovation Hub. This is yet another example of the successful implementation of a locally-developed product for the South African market.

Expertron was the first company to enter The Innovation Hub during 2000. The Innovation Hub is one of the high-profile Blue IQ projects, an initiative of the Gauteng Provincial Government to stimulate the development of globally competitive smart industries.

Expertron primarily focuses on developing ICT products for the South African market, exploiting opportunities at the convergence between conventional data networks and the GSM cellular networks.

Cell Power is one of the products developed by Expertron as a prepaid electronic voucher distribution system that uses standard GSM cellphones as affordable POS (point of sale) devices. Cell Power is different from other cellphone-based vending systems, in that a vendor can use a cellphone to vend electricity to consumers without bank accounts or credit cards. In contrast, other vending systems using cellphones are designed to enable consumers with both a cellphone and a bank account to pay for his/her own electricity.

The commissioning of the Cell Power system to vend prepaid electricity to the community represents a milestone event by the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, as this system is the first of its kind in SA.

Traditionally, the vending of prepaid electricity presents a severe challenge to municipalities in order to provide convenient access for the community to prepaid electricity vending points. Cell Power makes it possible to roll-out an extensive vending footprint by appointing vendors from among the community. These vendors use standard cellphones to vend prepaid electricity, and also make a commission from their sales. Not only does this provide a benefit to the community in terms of access to a widely-distributed vendor network, but also creates a business opportunity to members of the community (that is, appointed vendors) by tapping into the revenue of prepaid electricity sales.