Major plans to decrease load shedding in Cape Town This month

The City of Cape Town says it is on pace to abandon load shedding and Eskom, with a fresh tender for the most substantial power purchase phase to be released in the coming weeks.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, the city’s mayor, announced on March 29, 2023, the opening of a 500MW tender to purchase power on the open market.

He stated that the focus of this tender would be on renewable energy and dispatchable technologies like battery storage and gas-to-power.

The mayor stated that these power sources must supply electricity for a large percentage of the day in order to assist the city’s load-shedding prevention 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,” said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

The 500MW RFP is the final part of the city’s three-phase procurement effort.

“I am encouraged by the progress made on Cape Town’s three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection. Ending load-shedding is vital for economic growth, investor confidence, and ultimately to help people to work and out of poverty,” said Hill-Lewis.

“Bidders in Phase 1 of the procurement – for 200MW of renewable energy – will this month receive Cost Estimate Letters for connecting to Cape Town’s grid.”

He noted that this would help bidders develop rates for selling power back to the city.

The Centre for Science and Industrial Research, according to Hill-Lewis, has performed a detailed research on the integration of IPPs into the grid (CSIR).

“The second of the three-phase procurement for load-shedding protection takes the form of the Power Heroes programme, an initiative to pay residents incentives for voluntary energy savings, which will entail automated remote switching off of power-intensive devices at peak times.”

According to Hill-Lewis, the contract for this initiative is in the final stages of negotiation with preferred bidders and may be granted as soon as April if all goes as planned.

“Cape Town is also the first city in the country to offer households and businesses cash for their excess rooftop solar power. The City is set to start paying businesses cash for power before June, and residents will be able to start selling power for cash later this year,” Hill-Lewis said.

Cape Town’s recent actions have been lauded as setting a good example for other big cities.

Notwithstanding recent advances, load shedding is not slowing down, even on a nationwide scale.

The beleaguered electricity utility remains volatile and unpredictable, with load shedding, cutting, and switching between stages occurring without notice.