Western Cape Energy Council committed to working with Eskom

(Media Release: Issued and provided by the Western Cape Provincial Government)

The Energy Council is responsible for implementing the Western Cape Government’s Energy Resilience Programme, a comprehensive and whole-of-government initiative to ensure the province becomes energy secure and adds 5 700 MW of power to the grid by 2035, largely through enabling private sector and other role players to invest in critically needed energy infrastructure.

Impact of climate change and inclement weather on power supply

A delegation of Eskom managers was invited to provide an update on the power utility’s response to a host of mass outages experienced in the Western Cape in recent months.

Last month an extreme weather system hit large parts of the Western Cape. The Stellenbosch and Somerset West areas experienced mass power outages caused by strong winds.

Eskom General Manager of the Cape Coastal Cluster, Mr Mbulelo Yedwa, explained that while most of the faults were resolved within 2-3 days of the weather system, it took significantly longer to attend to other incidents. 

It was explained to the Council that factors such as extensive vegetation clearing did hamper power recovery efforts. Eskom teams also struggled to reach some damaged power lines due to flooding.

Read the full press release here which also highlights the refurbishment of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant.