R60,000 a month back from one tariff change at Continental Beverages.

PepsiCo's Continental Beverages site in Bloemfontein moved from Centlec's demand-based TOU Elecflex 3 tariff to its Commflex business time-of-use tariff after production stopped and the property was rezoned. Augos ran the analysis and managed the application. The change saves about R60,000 a month, roughly R720,000 a year, with no new equipment and no change to how the site runs.

A business can change almost everything about how it operates and still be billed as though nothing happened. The tariff is set once, often years earlier, and it rarely moves unless someone asks.

Could a closed factory still be on the wrong tariff?

Very likely. Utilities and municipalities do not move a site to a cheaper tariff when its use changes; the customer has to apply.

The Continental Beverages site was a production plant, on a tariff built for one: TOU Elecflex 3, a demand-based time-of-use tariff for large users, with lower energy rates and separate charges for the capacity they draw. Then production stopped and the property was rezoned from Industrial to Business. The site still used electricity, mostly to keep refrigeration running, but its load looked nothing like a factory's. The tariff stayed exactly where it was.

Why did the old tariff cost so much?

Because most of it billed capacity, not energy. On Centlec's 2026/27 rates in the Augos tariff database, TOU Elecflex 3 carries three charges that do not depend on how many kilowatt-hours a site uses:

• Demand charge: R320 per kVA, billed on the month's peak and often held up by a minimum based on notified or past demand.
• Network access charge: R114 per kVA every month, whatever the consumption.
• Service charge: R3,418 a month.

A plant spreads those charges across a large volume. A cold room cannot. The site was effectively paying industrial overheads to run a cold room.

Is time-of-use cheaper than a flat business tariff for 24-hour refrigeration?

On Centlec's tariffs, yes. Peak covers 25 of the 168 hours in a week, and off-peak covers 81. A load that runs all week therefore averages about R4.33/kWh on Commflex against R4.74/kWh on Centlec's flat business tariff in the high-demand season, and about R2.99 against R4.54 in the low-demand season.

That is an Augos calculation from the 2026/27 rates, on energy charges only, excluding public holidays. It is not a general rule. Other utilities set different peak hours, and a load that peaks in the evening changes the answer. Model it on measured data before switching.

Commflex also carries no demand or network access charge, only a R955 monthly service charge. That is where most of the saving came from.

Does rezoning change your electricity tariff?

Not by itself. The customer still has to apply, and the utility decides on eligibility. Here, the move from Industrial to Business zoning made Centlec's business tariffs an option, and the supply was reduced to suit the smaller load.

What Augos did

Augos analysed the site's consumption and load profile against every Centlec tariff open to a Business-zoned property. It recommended Commflex over the flat business tariff because the refrigeration load runs around the clock, and it managed the application with Centlec. Centlec confirmed the change in October 2025, and the saving was applied to invoices from July 2025.

The result: roughly R60,000 a month

The change saves about R60,000 a month on the site's invoices, or around R720,000 a year. The saving comes from removing the demand and network access charges and from a smaller service charge: R955 a month against R3,418, on 2026/27 rates. Energy costs more per kWh on Commflex than on Elecflex 3: low-season off-peak is R2.56 against R1.90, for example. The charges it removes are worth far more.

There was no new equipment and no change to operations. The one physical change was a smaller supply, sized to the refrigeration load. The saving came from matching the tariff, and the supply, to the business as it is today.

When should a business review its tariff?

Whenever the way it uses electricity changes. Typical triggers:

• Closing, downsizing or mothballing a plant or production line
• Rezoning or a change in property use
• Adding or removing shifts, or moving to 24-hour operation
• Installing solar PV, batteries or a generator
• Adding or removing large loads such as refrigeration, compressors or furnaces
• Energy efficiency projects that reduce peak demand
• Selling, subdividing or leasing out part of a property

How do you check you're on the right tariff?

Price the site's measured interval data under every tariff it qualifies for, month by month across a full year, including energy, demand, network and fixed charges. That is what Augos tariff comparison does, against every Eskom and municipal tariff in the Augos tariff database. It also checks whether the supply and notified maximum demand still fit. Where capacity charges are set by the NMD, an oversized one keeps billing for capacity the site no longer uses.

The bottom line

The Continental Beverages site didn't need to use less electricity to save money. It needed a tariff, and a supply, that fitted what it had become. If your operation has changed in the last few years and your tariff hasn't, it is worth asking whether you're still on the right one.

Tariff analysis and bill verification are core to what Augos does. See how tariff optimisation works, or read how electricity tariffs work. To review your own sites, book a demo or call 087 093 6174.