City of Cape Town reveals its Energy Priority Programme to end load shedding
(Media Release: Issued and provided by the City of Cape Town, Media Office)
The Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen, delivered a keynote address at the 3rd Annual Electricity Wheeling Conference and discussed the City’s progress, learnings and successes thus far. Councillor Van Reenen also discussed the City’s progress in mitigating up to four stages of Eskom's load shedding.
Wheeling, a City-enabled means of third parties selling electricity to each other using the City's existing grid infrastructure, is just one of the City's power supply diversification initiatives.
"I am particularly delighted to be here today, a year after speaking at the second edition of this conference to share with you some of the progress we have made toward achieving our immediate objective of protecting Cape Town residents and businesses from four stages of Eskom's load shedding by 2026," said Councillor Van Reenen.
"The culmination of which, is to secure Cape Town's energy needs through renewable energy programmes, reducing our reliance on Eskom and embracing a thriving energy market here in Cape Town that can be used as a model for success by likeminded local administrations in South Africa and across the African continent," she said.
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The City's process of delivering on the Mayor's Energy Priority Programme to end load shedding is underway and includes:
- R220 million on embedded independent power purchase
- R288 million on the Power Heroes programme which looks at voluntary power reduction in return for an incentive
- Estimate R1 billion investment in Steenbras (over the next nine years) subject to all due diligence and legal and regulatory processes
- R640 million on solar PV; R53 million Cash for Power programme, which involves selling excess power back to the City
- R50 million in Battery Storage
- R32 million on waste-to-energy
Read the full press release here.