The City of Cape Town’s executive deputy mayor, Ian Neilson, says that the city wants to generate its own electricity so as to become less reliant on power utility, Eskom.<\/p>\n
This is according to a report in Business Day<\/a>, which reported that the city is interested in “entering into a power purchase agreement with a private company that will construct a gas-fired power station within the city to provide Cape Town with a power supply which is not dependent on Eskom\u2019s monopoly”.<\/p>\n This will provide an anchor for the investment required to bring a gas supply into the city, Neilson said.<\/p>\n Eskom’s electricity woes are have been well documented in recent months, and despite continual blackouts, government officials, including President Jacob Zuma, have denied that the company is in crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Neilson, who is also the mayoral committee member for finance, disagrees, stating that load shedding is costing companies in the city as much as R1 billion a month.<\/p>\n “A national grid powered by large power stations cannot be our sole source of energy, or even of electricity,” Neilson told Business Day.<\/p>\n Ten days ago, the first unit of the Medupi power station finally began adding electricity to the South African power grid, marking the end to\u00a0years of delays hindering the switch-on.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin the next three months, South Africa will see Medupi unit six\u2019s full potential of 794MW being fed into the South African national grid,\u201d Eskom chief executive Tshediso Matona said.<\/p>\n Medupi\u2019s total output of 4,764MW however, is only expected to be synchronised to the grid by 2019.<\/p>\n Synchronisation involves the generator being connected to the grid so its power is aligned with all the other generators to deliver electricity.<\/p>\n South Africa\u2019s solar farms<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n ANC coining it from Eskom electricity crisis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on Eskom<\/h3>\n