Up to 5 Western Cape towns to be taken off the grid as province tries battery-powered units

Up to five Western Cape towns are set to come off the grid in the near future as the province pushes ahead with plans to end load-shedding and diversify its energy supply. 

During premier Alan Winde's fourth energy digicon on Thursday, his special adviser on energy, Alwie Lester, laid out various interventions that form part of the province's new energy generation programme (NEGP), including the installation of solar panels at public areas, mainly schools, to ensure that learning is not interrupted by load-shedding.

About 100 schools across the province are currently being identified to be fitted with solar power systems that are linked to battery and inverter systems "to ensure learners are not disadvantaged during school hours".

The provincial government is also in the process of identifying four or five towns in the Western Cape to be taken off the grid, "to make them as independent as possible from Eskom in the coming months".

Lester explained that this will be done through mobile containerised PV battery units which can tap between 1 megawatt (MW) to 400 MWs into the power system and can be connected to municipal power generation networks.

Another initiative the province is looking at is the municipal energy resilience (MER) plan, which is already well-advanced and currently targets five municipalities. 

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis outlined various programmes at the digicon that the city is tackling to end rolling blackouts.

These include renewable power without battery storage, which would help ensure sufficient and cheaper power supply. He said 200MW of embedded renewable energy via independent power producers is being purchased.

In the next week the city will also announce a tender for 500MW of dispatchable power that will be available immediately, at the flick of a switch, he said. While the project will not get Cape Town off the grid completely, it will make the city energy resilient. Discussions concerning the 500MW project are almost finalised.

The City of Cape Town previously announced it has made major policy shifts to enable all people to be net generators of energy at their homes or businesses. This will allow excess power to be sold back to the municipality.

"Businesses can currently do this and households will be able to do this by the end of the year. This incentive has seen a dramatic increase in solar installations in the city," it said.

Winde urged municipalities to put the needs of South Africans first and to work continuously on their energy plans.

“The measures the City of Cape Town is implementing are very encouraging. Cape Town’s population is growing at a rapid rate and it is important that the mayor and his team do everything they can to boost power production, protecting households and businesses from severe blackouts. This includes embracing innovation," he said.

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