- The City wants a Section 34 determination, in accordance with the New Generation Capacity Regulations in the Electricity Generation Act, to allow them to procure up to 400MW of renewable energy from IPPs.
Cape Town mayor, Dan Plato, has revived the City’s plans to take the South Africa Ministry of Energy to court over the distribution of power, after the recent spate of load shedding the country has endured. The mayor made the announcement at a press briefing in Bellville on Wednesday.
The City wants a Section 34 determination, in accordance with the New Generation Capacity Regulations in the Electricity Generation Act, to allow them to procure up to 400MW of renewable energy from IPPs.
Plato noted that the City was awaiting a date from the South Gauteng High Court on a court bid that was filed two years ago. “We want to loosen ourselves from Eskom. There is a lot of private energy producers in the Western Cape. We want to spread our wings,” he explained. As things stand, the power utility has the exclusive rights to purchase renewable energy, for resale, from IPPs.
Essentially, Eskom is the middle man between renewable energy sources and municipalities. This, Plato stated, is a hindrance for the Western Cape, which has a lot of private energy producers. If approved, the City will be able to mitigate the effects of load shedding by purchase up to 400MW of electricity from IPPs.
This would relieve the business environment, which has suffered great losses since power cuts were reintroduced on Friday, 15 March.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
