Cape Town - In opening the Solar Power Africa conference taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced a major step in securing Cape Town’s energy supply and ending load shedding over time.
To achieve this, Hill-Lewis announced that the City would be opening its first round in its process to procure power from Independent Power Producers (IPP).
The mayor said the tender documents for this procurement was available on the City’s website (https://web1.capetown.gov.za/web1/TenderPortal/Tender) and over the coming months, the City would procure up to 300MW of renewable energy.
“The City will be considering proposals from IPPs for projects between five to 20 MW that will allow us to access an affordable and reliable electricity supply, especially those that are able to help us reduce our reliance on Eskom during peak times of use,” said Hill-Lewis.
Hill-Lewis said they would consider proposals from a range of projects, including generation-only projects, generation-plus-storage projects, and storage-only projects.
During the opening at the conference, Hill-Lewis asked Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe whether the national government was committed to opening the way for municipal energy generation, and the Minister’s response was that his department “would not stand in Cape Town’s way”.
“It is crucial to the City that we are not only able to keep the lights on during off-peak times, but that we are able to supply households and businesses with electricity when demand is at its highest,” said the mayor.
Following this move to procure new capacity in the first tender process, was a second tender for dispatchable generation projects over 20MW which would be brought online in a short space of time.
Hill-Lewis thanked the City’s Energy executive director Kadri Nassiep and Energy Mayco member Beverley van Reenen, for their work in preparing this tender in record time.
“The City of Cape Town has shown its commitment to energy security by working flat out to ensure we get IPP projects up and running as soon as possible.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer than necessary to ensure Capetonians have reliable and affordable access to electricity,” Van Reenen said.
In agreement, Hill-Lewis said they were excited to partner with independent producers in working towards the progressive, poverty-ending goal of sustainable energy security in Cape Town.