Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on Thursday briefed the city council on the progress of a “three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection” plan intended to shield residents against the first four stages of rolling blackouts — within three years.
He also confirmed the city was working with the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on grid integration studies to determine when and where independent power producers (IPPs) will feed power into the local grid.
“We have already made much progress on the first of our three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection, with a 200MW procurement of renewable energy concluded last year,” he said.
“Tenders are to be awarded in the coming months, with the procurement now in the evaluation phase of technical proposals received from IPPs.”
The second element of the plan takes the form of a “Power Heroes” programme.
“The initiative is based on paying residents incentives for voluntary energy savings, which will entail automated remote switching off of power-intensive devices at peak times. The ‘demand response tender’ for this programme, launched in October last year, is in the evaluation phase, and will also be awarded within the coming months,” he said.
Cape Town council briefed on plan to shield residents from load-shedding
Image: Esa Alexander
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on Thursday briefed the city council on the progress of a “three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection” plan intended to shield residents against the first four stages of rolling blackouts — within three years.
He also confirmed the city was working with the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on grid integration studies to determine when and where independent power producers (IPPs) will feed power into the local grid.
“We have already made much progress on the first of our three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection, with a 200MW procurement of renewable energy concluded last year,” he said.
“Tenders are to be awarded in the coming months, with the procurement now in the evaluation phase of technical proposals received from IPPs.”
The second element of the plan takes the form of a “Power Heroes” programme.
“The initiative is based on paying residents incentives for voluntary energy savings, which will entail automated remote switching off of power-intensive devices at peak times. The ‘demand response tender’ for this programme, launched in October last year, is in the evaluation phase, and will also be awarded within the coming months,” he said.
Cape Town to start paying cash for excess electricity fed into the local grid
The third element, to be launched in February, involves a “dispatchable energy tender anticipated to yield about 500MW”.
“This tender will not only focus on renewable energy ... but will include all-important dispatchable technologies, such as battery storage and gas to power. These power sources need to generate power for a significant portion of the day to support our load-shedding protection efforts.
“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.”
He said procuring 500MW would contribute significantly towards reducing load-shedding over time, given that a single load-shedding stage required the city to shut down around 60MW.
The annual adjustment budget was also on the council agenda, including R117m for fuel — driven by rising diesel costs and the need to run generators to keep basic services infrastructure going.
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