Johannesburg - The City of Joburg cannot afford to be without power for hours on end, so as a result, Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse tabled a R401-million plan to avoid three stages of load shedding.
The City of Joburg said that despite its best efforts, power utility City Power was hit hard by load shedding, resulting in losses ranging from sales and revenue to employee costs in the form of overtime, equipment failure and damage, and crime-related incidents of theft and vandalism.
Former Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse, who yesterday briefed the media before she was ousted with MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Michael Sun and the CEO of City Power Tshifularo Mashava, said the power utility raised alarm bells this week when it announced that over the last year it has spent R200m on 390 mini-substations due to theft and vandalism, which generally happens during load shedding.
“We are losing on average two mini-substations per day. This is not the work of amateur criminals; it is criminality committed by highly armed and resourced syndicates,” she said.
In terms of what City Power and the multiparty government will do to mitigate and ultimately end load shedding in Joburg, City Power has a R401 million budget for a plan that could, in the short to medium term, avert up to Stage 3 load shedding.
“At R20 million, we can recommission the two existing Open Cycle Gas Turbine Stations. This would, of course, require the City to procure and burn diesel. We are already sitting with 1.2 million litres of diesel for these sites. This would add 74 MW to the network when needed. At R85 million for a Ripple Relay System, City Power will be able to remotely regulate high-energy use products such as geysers, swimming pool motors, and the like. This would save 80 MW when needed,” Phalatse said.
“At R175 million, we will procure and distribute smart metres and communication that will enable City Power to be able to limit the amount of power distributed to homes, so instead of completely turning the power off, we will be able to supply homes with enough energy to power essential needs. This will save an additional 322 MW when needed. This will not be done on a whim but will be communicated to customers when needed. The communication system will require R28 million.”
The mayor said this requires an energy management system upgrade, costing R120 million, that will enable City Power to better monitor, control, and optimise the performance of its transmission system.
“Unfortunately, as the city, we are not sitting with R400 million that can be easily shifted towards this programme, we are therefore exploring the establishment of an infrastructure fund, and we will be approaching development finance institutions (DFIs), the private sector, and the provincial and national governments to fund this project, where we will be leveraging our status as the economic hub of the country and the good governance practices of the multiparty government,” Phalatse said.
If City Power gets the money today, it would take up to six months to get this mitigation plan active given that much of the infrastructure is already in place.
“We are not sitting on our hands or burying our heads in the sand, as we fully comprehend the scale of this emergency and the urgency required to address it,” the mayor added.
The Star