What is Free Basic Electricity?
FBE is the amount of electricity, which is deemed sufficient to provide basic electricity services to a poor household. This amount of energy will be sufficient to provide basic lighting, basic media access, basic water heating using a kettle and basic ironing in terms of grid electricity and basic lighting and basic media access for non-grid systems.
The origin of Free Basic Electricity (FBE)
South African access to electricity increased from 35 percent of households in 1990 to 84 percent in 2011, according to the South Africa Statistical Association. When the government realized that poor households could not afford to use electricity, Free Basic Electricity (FBE) was introduced in 2004, which provides 50 kilowatt hours (kWh) of free electricity to the poor per month. This plan has kept access growing with the addition of the new energy sources, and infrastructure expansion and upgrades. There is a continued push to increase off-grid solutions to those in remote areas that are difficult for Eskom to reach.
How does it work?
The proposed amount of free electricity is 50kWh per household per month for a grid-based system. This is the approximately the amount of energy needed for basic lighting, running a small black and white TV and a small radio, basic ironing and basic water boiling through an electric kettle. 50Wp will be provided per non-grid connected supply system for all households connected to the official non-grid systems.
Users who have pre-paid electricity meters will be able see when the free electricity is used up and will be able to buy more electricity at their own expense. Users with credit meters will not be able to see easily when they have used up their units. They will be charged for additional use at the end of each month.