The City of Cape Town says it is on track with its plan to shift away from load shedding and Eskom, with a new tender for the most significant power procurement phase being published in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The city’s mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said that a 500MW tender to buy power on the open market will be opened on 29 March 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n He said this tender will focus on renewable energy and dispatchable technologies, such as battery storage and gas-to-power.<\/p>\n These power sources need to generate power for a significant portion of the day to support the city’s load-shedding protection efforts, the mayor added.<\/p>\n “Importantly, these dispatchable supply sources need not be located in a city-supply area. We are expecting enough progress on this three-phase procurement – and our other deliverables – to provide at least four stages of load-shedding protection within three years,” said Mayor Hill-Lewis.<\/p>\n The 500MW tender forms the final stage of a three-phase procurement initiative undertaken by the city.<\/p>\n “I am encouraged by the progress made on Cape Town’s three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection. Ending load-shedding is vital for economic growth, investor confidence, and ultimately to help people to work and out of poverty,” said Hill-Lewis.<\/p>\n “Bidders in Phase 1 of the procurement – for 200MW of renewable energy – will this month receive Cost Estimate Letters for connecting to Cape Town’s grid.”<\/p>\n He added that this would assist bidders in formulating their tariffs for selling power back to the City.<\/p>\n According to Hill-Lewis, a comprehensive study on the integration of IPPs into the grid has been conducted by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).<\/p>\n “The second of the three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection takes the form of the Power Heroes programme, an initiative to pay residents incentives for voluntary energy savings, which will entail automated remote switching off of power-intensive devices at peak times.”<\/p>\n Hill-Lewis said that the contract for this programme is in the final stages of negotiations with preferred bidders and could be awarded within April if all goes to plan.<\/p>\n “Cape Town is also the first city in the country to offer households and businesses cash for their excess rooftop solar power. The City is set to start paying businesses cash for power before June, and residents will be able to start selling power for cash later this year,” Hill-Lewis said.<\/p>\n The recent moves by Cape Town have been hailed for providing an example to other major metros.<\/p>\n Despite recent developments, even on a national level, load shedding is showing no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n The embattled power utility remains volatile and unpredictable with load shedding, chopping and changing between stages without warning.<\/p>\n
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