Cape Town - As load shedding woes continue to exert their grip over the country, the Western Cape is racing ahead with its implementation of the Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) initiative in a bid to combat the energy crisis, but this will not be operational for another couple of years.
This was revealed in a written answer from Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger to a question asked in the legislature by DA MPL Cayla Murray, who had wanted to know what outcomes have been achieved to date as far as the MER’s implementation.
Wenger said the municipal IPP procurement work under way was advancing into the implementation phase, with Stellenbosch Municipality being the first municipality to be provided with transaction advisory support for municipal procurement of up to 50MW.
She said this should be operational by late 2025 as would be the City’s IPP procurement programme for 200MW of energy.
She said some notable progress had already been made, including small-scale embedded generation of 102MW, which had been installed and registered in Western Cape municipalities since December 2020.
Regarding private sector enablement, Wenger said: “If the REIPPPP BW5 projects in the Western Cape reach financial close by the end of the October 2023 national IPP office deadline, they are estimated to reach commercial operation 18-24 months thereafter.”
Wenger also disclosed that three very large private sector renewable energy projects of approximately 300MW in total were under way but said the information was currently confidential and it was unclear at this stage what proportion of these projects would be implemented in the Western Cape.
Reacting to the MEC’s response, DA MPL Cayla Murray said: “While the MER initiative is still in its infancy, it is already clear that the province is hard at work putting the institutional frameworks in place to make alternative, low-carbon electricity generation and procurement a reality.”
Murray said she would be submitting further questions through the NCOP on the timelines and expectations for renewable energy projects and the restructuring of electricity generation in South Africa and the implementation of these plans, particularly as they impact the Western Cape.
“The DA in the Western Cape will also continue to hold the national government to account in terms of the commitments made by the president during his Sona speech in February, and his energy press conference in July.”
In July, President Ramaphosa unveiled an Energy Action Plan to tackle intensifying load-shedding and announced that the government would help accelerate investment.
Meanwhile, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the City was busy evaluating a tender advertised earlier this year which would enable the City to procure 200MW from IPPS.
“We’ve also just issued a tender for the engineering, procurement and construction of a solar power plant in Atlantis, with more planned across the metro.”