Despite the hefty cost to get connected, Cape Town’s business community is ready to profit from the City’s plans to buy excess power from businesses, households and schools to protect itself from load shedding.
The Load-shedding Protection plan, widely described as a potential game-changer and benchmark for other municipalities, will be implemented before June.
In outlining the plan Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said: “If you’ve got kilowatts to sell, we want ‘em all. And if you want to be paid cash for your power, now you can – just tell us if you want it by EFT, e-wallet, SnapScan, or Apple Pay.“
He added that cash payments to commercial customers would be possible before June and, within the year, for any Capetonian with the necessary City-approved generation capacity.
And some residents who are generating energy from their properties have heeded the call.
Energy expert and Cape Town resident Hilton Trollip welcomed the move which comes after the National Treasury approved the City’s electricity cash-for-power plan.
Trollip said he had started making the groundwork to enable him to sell excess electricity to the City.
“We will make money but at the same time help the City and the economy,“ he said.
The City’s executive director for energy, Kadri Nassiep, said the municipality would pay a tariff of 76c p/kWh and an incentive of 25c p/kWh.
“The amount of energy that they can produce is limited by the size of their system which is limited by the size of their connection to the City grid. Therefore, they may produce as much as they can equivalent to the size of their system. If they wish to increase their system, they may apply to the City for an increased connection.
“In addition to a 25c p/kWh that the City has availed, the City now buys all energy in excess of consumption. Neither of these two subsidies are offered by any other provider in South Africa,” said Nassiep.
In order to feed into the City's energy grid, customers would need to install an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), commonly known as a bi-directional meter, which costs up to R12 000.
According to Trollip, the total cost of going off the grid could cost up to R120 000 but in the long term could lead to a huge saving on electricity costs when selling back to the City
He added that some companies were also offering finance to enable residents to generate energy.
Nassiep said the City also recognised that the cost of the bi-directional meter was high for many households and was looking at ways to bring the price down.
The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industries also welcomed the City’s plan as a possible game-changer.
The Chamber said a survey conducted in 2021 showed that more than 40% of respondents indicated that their energy supply was unreliable, and over 20% generated more than half their power from alternative sources.
“As a Chamber we are hoping this model can be replicated elsewhere as soon as possible. Farming consortiums have long been asking to generate their own power and feed into the grid. We urge all relevant role players to accelerate private participation in the energy sector," said Chamber president Jacques Moolman.
Hill-Lewis also said the first phase was expected to secure 200MW of renewable energy from Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
Tenders would be awarded “in the coming months”, with the procurement now in the evaluation phase of technical proposals received from IPPs.
The third phase, to be launched in March, was expected to yield at least 300MW for the grid.
“This tender will include all-important dispatchable technologies, such as battery storage and gas to power. These power sources need to generate power for a significant portion of the day to support our load-shedding protection efforts... they need not be located in a City-supply area,” said Hill-Lewis.
Nassiep expected all three projects to gain momentum in the new financial year.
Weekend Argus