Cape Town’s R1.2 billion plan to beat load shedding

The City of Cape Town will invest R1.2 billion into a solar PV and battery storage project, which should produce 60MW of renewable energy – potentially shielding the city from one stage of load shedding.

The city is investing in the Paardevlei Ground-mounted Solar Photovoltaic and Battery Energy Storage System Project near Somerset West on 400 hectares of land owned by the city.

The feasibility study for the Paardevlei plant will be complete by the end of 2023, with full commissioning of the plant estimated by August 2026. The plant is envisaged for the portion of Paardevlei that is not developable for human settlements purposes.

The project will also receive international support from the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), which offers technical and financial support in green energy projects aiming to achieve a just energy transition.

Overall, the city will spend R2.3 billion in the next three years to end load shedding.

As reported by News24, Shane Prins, manager at the city’s Sustainable Energy Markets department, said that the city is not keen to provide all the R1.2 billion of capital for the project, instead allocating nearly R450 million of its R2.3 billion budget to the project.

Prins said that the other possible funding options would be evaluated, including private-public partnerships or having an Independent Power Producer (IPP) develop the project with the city entering into a power-purchase agreement.

“This project is another critical step in our journey away from Eskom reliance and towards a load-shedding-free Cape Town,” said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

Cape Town’s big plans 

The new announcement aligns with the city’s overall aim of moving away from Eskom.

Earlier this month, Hill Lewis announced that the city would be issuing a 500MW dispatchable energy tender to combat load shedding, with the city saying that it formed a crucial pillar of its plan to protect residents from the first four stages of load shedding in the next three years.

“We are confident that Cape Town will be the first metro to break free from the suffocating hold that Eskom has placed on our country, and in doing so enable meaningful economic growth and investment that helps more people into work over time,” he said.

The city said the tenders would have multiple elements, such as power generation purchases with plants focusing on dispatchable technologies – gas to power.

This includes power generation purchases with plants that focus on dispatchable technologies, such as gas-to-power.

The city was also looking for competitive proposals from IPPS looking to purchase electricity from plans with plants with dispatchable technologies,

It added that the power sources need to be within a city-supply area and generate a large amount of electricity.

10-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPAs) would be entered into between the city and successful bidders, with the potential for multiple bidders to be awarded contracts.

Contracts for a 200 MW renewable energy procurement from Independent Power Producers will be awarded within 2023.

The Power Heroes Programme tender is expected to be awarded within the next few weeks, which will entail incentivised voluntary energy savings via automated remote switching off of power-intensive devices at peak times.

Cape Town is the first city in the country to offer households and businesses cash for power from their solar PV systems, with the feed-in tariff set to increase by 10.15% for 2023/24, plus a 25c per kWh incentive.

Read: Hospitals spend almost R700 million to avoid load shedding in South Africa