The "California Option" for South Africa?

This Urban Sprout article highlights an idea put forth by John Joslin of Smart Green Prosperity. The general idea is for South Africa to embrace an approach to electricity supply based on the California model. Currently in South Africa, a utility makes profits when consumers/industry consume MORE electricity. This leaves little incentive for the utilities to encourage efficiency to reduce consumption. The "California Option" is based on focusing on energy efficiency measures implemented by industry & households (with the assistance of the utility/ies / government) which will reduce consumption. The rate(s) at which electricity is charged can be increased (but because of the energy efficiency measures put in place with the assistance of the power utility/ies), the customer ends up paying less. This results in a "win/win/win" scenario (the utility/ies make revenue; the consumer pays less; and the environment benefits from reduced emissions). This also means that fewer power stations need to be built. Coupled with moving away from non-renewable methods of power production, and agressively persuing a mix of renewable solutions, this could be the way to go! Please let us have your comments/feedback on this issue.