The City of Cape Town is already promising citizens an end to load shedding.
This after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced “far-reaching” amendments to the current Electricity Regulation Act.
The Electricity Regulation Amendment bill published this week is big news, a game changer, which will finally break Eskom’s stranglehold on the energy sector.
And hopefully lead to a stable supply of power in the future.
The bill will enable the creation of a competitive electricity market, where mense will be able to generate, buy and sell krag to each other and to municipalities.
Imagine that.
It will also lead to the establishment of an independent state-owned transmission company by the end of this year.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has invited comments on the bill, but after 30 days, if all goes to script, the electricity sector, as we know it, will be forever changed.
And this has got Cape Town Mayor Geordin-Hill Lewis’ face lit up like Adderley Street over the festive season.
The mayor took centre stage at the Solar Power Africa Conference at the CTICC on Wednesday where he proudly proclaimed that Kaapstad would be the first load shedding-free city in South Africa.
And he declared that the process to procure 300MW of renewable energy from Independent Power Producers (IPP) open – much of which will be generated by solar plants.
Hill-Lewis said that the tender documents are already available on the City’s website.
“The City will be considering proposals from IPPs for projects between 5 to 20MW 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,” he said.
The Cape’s number one citizen said they would consider proposals from a range of projects, including generation-only projects, generation-plus-storage projects, and storage-only projects.
No more load shedding. Goodbye darkness my old friend, power to the people and the economy once more.
Sounds fantastic.
Except, there remains one dark cloud to this silver lining, and that is the brutal cost of electricity.
There’s no use in having a secure power supply if it’s not affordable.
After the City’s last tariff hike of 13.5% on 1 July last year, the cost of one unit of krag is now R2.73 for home users.
The City said the increase was as a result of Eskom’s 17.8% increase to municipalities.
They defended the new pricing by saying that they had absorbed more of Eskom’s increase to protect customers than any other metro in the country.
Property owners who had lost their income were able to apply for indigent status and receive indigent benefits, including zero rates and reduced or free services, the City said.
Residents and activists, however, pointed out that while the City blamed Eskom tariffs for their R2.73 price per unit, Eskom charges R1.82 per unit.
The City argued that this is because it’s costly to operate, maintain and pay staff to manage its electricity grid.
In their defence, City of Cape Town customers have been slightly insulated from the full shock of load shedding.
Thanks to the power generated by Steenbras Dam hydro electric power station (up to 180MW), residents have been able to stay one level ahead of the rest of the country.
The City’s cash reserves of R18 billion could be used to soften the blow of these increases, the ratepayers countered.
Because what happens if the National Energy Regulator of SA approves Eskom’s application to hike the price by a further 20.5% in the 2022/23 financial year?
Then it won’t matter if there’s load shedding or not. The consumer will be lights out any way.
It’s also worth mentioning the issues with the City’s billing system and estimated vs actual meter readings.
Ask Munier, whose monthly electric account has gone from R1000 to R4000 to R5000 in the space of three months!
And even after he spent an hour on the phone to log a consumption dispute and request a meter inspection, the City still went ahead and issued him a “Disconnection Warning” letter.
Watt the hell?!
taariq.halim@inl.co.za