By end December 2010, we had received data from 11 of the participants. Data was received from 4 of the 6 metro's, 3 of the secondary municipalities, 1 Category 3 and 3 of the Category 4 municipalities.

Preliminary data analysis has been completed.

Our thanks goes out to all the participants that have submitted their data for the Benchmarking Exercise. The results will be sent to each municipality once they are finalised.

Preparation activities are now underway for the Benchamarking Conference, scheduled for the end of February 2011. More details on the conference programme, guest speakers and final dates and venues will be posted in the next day or two

Real and relevant comments were raised by the particpants, come of which related to the questionair it self, others to considerations for the future and quite a few related to the use of the data going forward to motivate overall business improvements and changes.

During the workshop the following comments and proposed changes to the Template were noted :    

1.       A comment/notes field is to be added to the spreadsheet.

2.       A field control indicator is to be added to track compulsory data input.   

3.       Sales and Revenue spreadsheet:

a.       Add Government to category field.

b.      Check Total/Autosum formula.

c.       Question 1:  Add the following - Do you buy from any other source other than Eskom, include City Power and Ekurhuleni. 

d.      Question 6:  Add the following word: Ringfenced.

e.      Internet Metering – should this added. 

f.        List Multipoint’s, Basic/Demand Charges 4-types of  Tariffs. 

4.       Operating Expenses spreadsheet:

a.       Question 1: Depreciation – a non cash line.

b.      A (Rand) value needs to be added for Vandalism – however Vandalism is part of Works Order and it is difficult to extract the information.

5.       Assets and Capital Expenditure spreadsheet:

a.       Question 6: Check further Voltage breakdown, this needs to fit the municipal environment – currently this works for Eskom.    

6.       Billing and Debtors spreadsheet:

a.       Add the following question: What is your revenue collected based on Electricity Sales.

b.      Comment: What is the State’s contribution to Debtors?.     

7.       NERSA spreadsheet:

a.       Question 2: Approved vs. Implemented, are the implemented tariffs currently used approved by NERSA.  

8.       Customer Services spreadsheet:

             a. Question 5: What Voltage is referred to.

All the above comments were considered and updated into a revision of the questionair. The questionair will be distributed by the Regional General Managers to the specific municipality via email. The questionair is to be copied over the existing file and can then be used to populate with data.

Convention 2010 Benchmarking Paper

Internationally benchmarking of distribution companies has been applied by regulators to compare efficiencies of entities. Of significance to the distribution industry in South Africa, efficiency analysis through benchmarking, is particularly important in the migration to a competitive industry structure with some form of market-oriented regulation.  Benchmarking can also  provide valuable data to identify cost drivers and efficiency mprovement factors from the existing distributors which would improve the viability of the industry in total.

In 2005 The City of Cape Town score card was developed as a subset of an international benchmarking score card, using comparable data from the extensive international database. This scorecard was based on the minimum number of data points that would provide a good indication of business performance across operational areas. The City's electricity distribution business has continued with the benchmarking initiative and has started to see the benefits in their over-all performance.

Proudly on the 29 October 2010, an SA Industry Benchamrking initiative amongst the Municipal Distributors will kick-off with the intent of collecting relevant business specific data, identify industry trends and areas for improvement and to use relevant best practisesto start a gradual industry performance reform.