Electricity faulty? Then simply send an SMS of 160 characters or less to 31220 and the City’s Electricity Services Technical Operation Centre will log your report.

The City’s increasingly popular service is quick, efficient and inexpensive (85 cents per 160 character SMS), and eliminates the “queuing time” while you are put on hold and have to wait for your call to be answered.

The City also has an e-mail fault reporting service (FaultReporting.Centre@capetown.gov.za or frc@capetown.gov.za), but because more people have cell phones than email, the City has now provided this new SMS link to its Electricity Services Technical Operation Centre.
Any SMS or email must contain your name, erf number and/or account number/pre- paid meter number, street address and a brief description of the fault. The City’s Technical Operations Centre officials will then log the complaint for remedial action and provide the sender with a reference number. Acknowledgements of the receipt of SMSs and emails are sent to the sender.

The SMSs are received by the City in the form of an e-mail, which is then logged on the City’s standard notification system, and dispatched to the relevant operational response team for action. The system allows officials to track the progress of each and every query that comes into the City.

At present, the Electricity SMS service is for problems such as faults in the house supply, faulty street lights, pre-paid meter faults and cable theft. The City provides a 24 hour call-out service for emergency cases.

The Electricity Services Technical Operations Centre hotline 0800 220 440 and the e-mail FaultReporting.Centre@capetown.gov.za or frc@capetown.gov.za service, as well as other call centre services will continue to be provided.