City of Cape Town says load shedding hurting much-needed economic growth
|Published
A PnP retail store in Durbanville, powered by a diesel generator, kept electricity on to carry on with business. Picture: Henk Kruger/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town – The City of Cape Town has said it has been hit hard by the latest round of load shedding, which comes amid cold and wet weather and high volumes of electricity service requests due to storm damage.
The City stated “this situation is unsustainable in a climate where economic growth is now more critical than ever”.
Amendments to the electricity regulations were gazetted in October, which could pave the way for municipalities to source power independently from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), the City said.
It has again reiterated its call on government to expedite the processes that would enable the procurement from IPPs “so that municipalities such as Cape Town can go forth and start breaking the sole reliance on Eskom for power provision”.
Mayor, Dan Plato wrote to Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe in January to seek clarity regarding the procurement from IPPs.
The City hopes its plans for more affordable, cleaner and reliable energy supply would become a reality in the next three years. The plan includes building and procuring its own renewable generation capacity.
“We implore the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to provide clarity on the process as soon as possible so that we can move forward with the execution of our plans.”
The City also hopes to have a solar-powered photovoltaic (PV) plant built in 2022 or 2023.
However, with the current Municipal Finance Management Act and Energy Regulation Act regulations, the City said it could take up to five years from when a determination is provided to have the first power from an IPP in the grid.
Mayco member for energy and climate change, Phindile Maxiti, said: “We need greater societal pressure to be placed on Eskom and the national government to break the Eskom monopoly sooner rather than later. We simply cannot continue like this.
“Our households and economy being plunged into darkness again at a time where we are all trying to recover from the ongoing Covid-19 and national regulation impacts and amid this severe Cape Town storm, is absolutely unacceptable.
“Service requests are already very high due to storm damage, and load shedding will make the situation worse. The City thanks its customers for their understanding.”
The City said currently, it spends about 65% of the income from electricity tariffs to buy bulk energy from Eskom.
“With the cost of renewable energy going down constantly as new technology is deployed, it holds such potential for big cities to procure cleaner energy for their customers at potentially lower bulk prices, while at the same time making energy more accessible.”
The City is protecting its customers from one stage of load shedding with Capetonians being on stage 1 from 6am until 10pm tonight, and the rest of the country being on stage 2.
It added it would communicate any changes as soon as possible.
The City said the inclement weather “is causing high electricity service request volumes. Load shedding will exacerbate this situation and it will likely take some time to restore outages”.
Cape Argus