Cape Town - The ANC is wary of the motives behind the support the DA-led provincial government and municipalities have shown for independent power producers (IPPs) and the unbundling of Eskom.
This was expressed by ANC provincial spokesperson on local government Danville Smith when reacting to the news that the province had launched its three-year municipal energy resilience (MER) project to assist municipalities to take advantage of the new energy regulations, which potentially include the buying of energy directly from IPPs.
Announcing that two bids had been advertised in the government tender bulletin, Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC David Maynier said: “The MER project will help municipalities across the Western Cape to understand the requirements of the new national energy regulations, and mitigate related risks as well as provide for network and operational capacity requirements for energy project development and procurement in municipalities.
“The procurement of energy at utility and municipal distribution scale, such as bulk energy purchases from IPPs, under conditions of developing and evolving policies and regulations, is a complex and challenging task.
“Municipalities may not have the policies, plans, resources, funding or procurement expertise to procure wholesale electricity from sources other than Eskom, specifically IPPs.
“Neither have all municipalities’ electricity distribution systems been technically evaluated to clarify their readiness to support new electricity generation and energy trading.”
Smith said: “The DA-run municipalities and province have only one goal in mind and that is the 2021 local government elections.
“It is for this reason the DA wants to keep a tight grip on this matter and to ensure its friends and donors have a goalkeeper looking after their interests in this lucrative industry.
“The ANC will monitor these developments closely.
“We call on Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe to monitor the implementation in provinces, so that it is not hijacked by provinces who may want to act as the middlemen in the process.
“Let us cut all the red tape and allow municipalities in good financial standing to procure electricity directly from IPPs.
“The launch by the province of the municipal energy resilience project makes it clear that municipalities in the province are not ready to procure energy from IPPs and only a few will be able to do so in the near future.
“The Green Economy unit is also not equipped with necessary expertise to assist municipalities, thus the need to get assistance from the private sector.”
Cape Argus