The cost of electricity

Your electricity cost depends on your tariff, how much electricity you use, and any fixed, demand or network-related charges that apply. Residential and commercial tariffs are structured differently.

Electricity tariffs cover the cost of buying electricity, delivering it through the City’s network, maintaining and upgrading infrastructure, metering and billing customers, keeping capacity available, and supporting qualifying households.

Continue reading to find out how this works for residential and commercial properties.

Residential electricity tariffs

Residential electricity tariffs apply to customers in the City of Cape Town electricity supply area. The tariff that applies to you is determined by:

your average monthly electricity use (calculated over a 12-month period);
the municipal valuation of your property (to determine the extent of rebates or relief applied to qualifying customers);
the type of electricity meter you have;
and whether you are registered for indigent relief or receive a rates rebate as a property owner dependent on a pension or social grant.

The 2026/27 residential electricity tariffs are in effect from 1 July 2026 for customers in the City of Cape Town supply area. For Eskom tariffs, please refer to the Eskom website.

The four tariffs and their respective costs and benefits are listed below:

Lifeline tariff

The Lifeline tariff is a highly subsidised residential electricity tariff for qualifying prepaid customers with limited means.

No Services and Wires Charge applied to the Lifeline tariff.

The following qualifying criteria apply to this tariff:

Your monthly electricity usage (calculated on a 12-month average) must be below 450 kWh. This usage includes any free basic electricity allocation
Your municipal property valuation must be less than R500 000
A prepaid electricity meter must be installed

If you qualify for an indigent rebate or a pensioner or disabled rebate, you are exempted from the municipal property valuation criterion, but you will still need to keep your usage below 450 kWh per month. Certain recognised old age homes run by registered Public Benefit Organisations may also qualify for the Lifeline tariff.

Please note that the Lifeline tariff is not applied automatically. To qualify, you will need to apply for the correct electricity connection in order to receive the benefit.

Free basic electricity
Qualifying Lifeline customers receive either 60 kWh or 25 kWh of free basic electricity each month, depending on their average monthly electricity use.

Energy charge
After the free basic electricity allocation has been used, electricity is charged at the Lifeline rate:

Monthly use	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Up to 600kWh (After the free 60kWh or 25kWh allocation)	246.12 c/kWh	283.04 c/kWh
Above 600kWh	246.12 c/kWh	283.04 c/kWh

The same Lifeline energy rate applies above 600 kWh.
To remain on the Lifeline tariff, your average monthly electricity use over a 12-month period must be 450 kWh or less.
If you exceed the monthly limit of 450 kWh on average (single purchases can exceed this value), you will be moved to the Domestic or Home User tariff.

**Example of average monthly account billing on the Lifeline tariff**
Units received (kWh)	2025/26	2026/27	% increase
60	R0.00	R0.00	Unchanged
150	R234.46	R254.74	8.65%
250	R494.97	R537.78	8.65%
350	R846.66	R919.88	8.65%
450	R1 107.17	R1 202.92	8.65%
600	R1 497.93	R1 627.48	8.65%
750	R1 888.70	R2 052.04	8.65%

Domestic tariff

	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Daily charge recovered through prepaid purchases	R2.14 per day	R2.46 per day

Monthly use	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Up to 600kWh	359.82 c/kWh	413.79 c/kWh
Above 600kWh	429.48 c/kWh	493.90 c/kWh

**Example of average monthly account billing on the Domestic tariff**
Units received (kWh)	2025/26	2026/27	% increase
250	R1 046.24	R1 109.25	6,02%
450	R1 828.12	R1 936.83	5,95%
600	R2 414.53	R2 557.51	5,92%
800	R3 344.03	R3 545.31	6,02%
1 000	R4 273.53	R4 533.11	6,07%
1 500	R6 597.28	R7 002.61	6,14%

Home User tariff

	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Services and Wires Charge	R368.96 per month	R424.30 per month

Monthly use	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Up to 600kWh	309.52 c/kWh	355.95 c/kWh
Above 600kWh	407.88 c/kWh	469.06 c/kWh

**Example of average monthly account billing on the Home User tariff**
Units received (kWh)	2025/26	2026/27	% increase
250	R1 235.02	R1 314.18	6,41%
450	R1 910.34	R2 026.08	6,06%
600	R2 416.83	R2 560.00	5,92%
800	R3 300.55	R3 498.12	5,99%
1 000	R4 184.27	R4 436.24	6,02%
1 500	R6 393.57	R6 781.54	6,07%

Residential Time of Use (TOU)

The Residential Time-of-Use (TOU) tariff is an optional residential tariff that lets customers manage their electricity costs by shifting some usage to lower-cost times of the day.

Under a TOU tariff, electricity is charged at different rates depending on when it is used. This tariff may suit customers who can move higher-usage activities to cheaper periods, or who have a battery system that can store electricity for use during peak periods.

Customers are not moved to this tariff automatically. You must request to be placed on the Residential TOU tariff.
There is no free basic electricity allocation on this tariff, and the tariff is set to be fully cost reflective.

The following criteria apply to this tariff:

An Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meter must be installed to access this tariff. The property owner is responsible for any associated meter conversion and installation costs.
Customers on this tariff will pay the published Residential TOU charges, as well as the applicable Residential AMI Administration Fee.

This tariff is available to residential customers with or without approved Small-Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG), provided the AMI metering requirement is met.

Services and Wires Charge
A monthly Administrative Charge and monthly Capacity Charge applies. This charge is recovered via a rand per month charge on the billing system.

	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Administration Charge	R344.49	R396.16
Capacity Charge	R250.85	R288.48

AMI Administration Fee
A Residential AMI Administration Fee is applicable to all residential customers with AMI installed, including residential SSEG customers.

	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Residential AMI Administration Fee	R5.91	R6.80

Energy charge
With this tariff, electricity is charged at different energy rates depending on the time of day:

Peak periods (higher cost)
Standard periods (moderate cost)
Off-peak periods (lower cost)

**Energy charge: High demand (June to August)**
	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Peak	781.07 c/kWh	893.23 c/kWh
Standard	321.12 c/kWh	369.29 c/kWh
Off peak	261.69 c/kWh	300.94 c/kWh

**Energy charge: Low demand (September to May)**
	Rate excluding VAT	Rate including VAT
Peak	363.95 c/kWh	418.54 c/kWh
Standard	309.22 c/kWh	355.60 c/kWh
Off peak	261.69 c/kWh	300.94 c/kWh

Further information on tariffs

Find out how you can save electricity.

ABOUT THE FIXED CHARGES

Fixed electricity charges reflect the cost of providing access to the electricity grid as a service. This grid service ensures that electricity can be delivered safely and reliably whenever it is needed, regardless of how much electricity a customer uses. The costs of maintaining and operating the electricity network, including infrastructure, repairs and system reliability, are largely fixed and do not vary significantly with each customer’s monthly usage. For this reason, the grid service is treated separately from the electricity itself. Customers pay variable charges for the electricity they consume, measured in kWh. The fixed charge helps recover the cost of keeping the grid available, stable and ready for use. This supports a more reliable and equitable electricity system for all customers.

BUYING PREPAID ELECTRICITY

Your prepaid electricity purchases are charged according to your tariff and the total amount of electricity bought during the month. Buying smaller amounts more often will not reduce your electricity cost, because the vending system keeps track of your total monthly purchases. Buying in bulk also does not give you a cheaper rate. Where block tariffs apply, the rate is based on the total kWh bought in that month, not on the size of each purchase. For better budgeting, try to buy electricity around once a month and only buy the amount you expect to use for that month.

Find out more about the best way to buy prepaid electricity and visit our Buy prepaid electricity page.

Commercial electricity tariffs

Commercial electricity tariffs are charged according to power usage.

As a commercial or industrial electricity customer, the following tariffs apply:

Small Power User 1 (NMD up to 500 kVA; no restrictions on meter type)
Small Power User 2 (NMD up to 500 kVA; prepayment meter or AMI installed)
Small Power User 3 (Very small occasional supplies; prepayment meter installed)
Large User LV Time-of-Use tariff.
Large User MV Time-of-Use tariff.
Large User HV Time-of-Use tariff

You will be charged a service and energy charge on all tariffs, as well as a demand charge for commercial tariffs other than the Small Power User tariffs. Aside from the amount of power you consume, you may also be charged according to when you use power – this is called Time-of-Use.

See the Electricity Consumptive Tariffs annexure for a detailed breakdown of all applicable charges.

Please note

Customers are encouraged to review their usage and tariff options, as it remains their responsibility to select the most suitable tariff for their usage pattern. The balancing point between Small Power User 1 and 2 is approximately 1 400 kWh per month, and between Small Power User 2 and 3 is approximately 250 kWh per month.

For further information, see our Understanding Commercial SPU Electricity Tariffs Guideline.

Tariff resources

Relevant terms and conditions regarding which tariff or group of tariffs may be applicable can be found in our Tariff Policies document. You can see all tariffs and Time-of-Use details in our tariff schedule in the document download section below.
If you don't have a municipal account with the City of Cape Town, you will have to register for one. You can do this through e-Services. Follow the City Connect link below to find out how to register with e-Services.

City Connect

Register for e-Services

Frequently asked questions

Please consult our Electricity Tariffs FAQ for further tariff-related information.

How do we decide on the electricity price?

We consider the following factors:

Changes in customers’ usage patterns
Proposed Eskom price increases
The economic outlook/inflation
Other external shocks (wars, loadshedding etc.)
The Electricity Generation and Distribution Department's and Sustainable Energy Markets Department’s operating and maintenance costs (as per the Cost of Supply Study)

Please note

Cape Town’s electricity tariffs have been formulated in accordance with the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act and Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act.