Johannesburg Mayor Announces New Energy Mix Plan – 500MW New Capacity Procurement

  • Johannesburg Executive Mayor Mpho Moerane has big plans for the city’s energy mix going forward to ensure reliable power supply for its people.
  • The new energy mix plan is designed to secure almost 500MW of new generating capacity by moving from Eskom to alternative energy sources.

The energy mix plan, said Moerane, “is a strategy set out to accelerate the security of reliable power supply to make sure there is no load reduction, not just in areas supplied by City Power, but also in areas supplied by Eskom, including Midrand and Fleurhof”.

Moerane said that in the past week the city had been in lengthy discussions with Eskom and a memorandum of understanding between the two parties had been signed to kick-start the exploration of the best way to take over areas in the city supplied by Eskom. Read more

Moerane also emphasised the signing of the two-year Power Purchase Agreement with the privately owned Kelvin Power Station, which will provide an additional 220MW capacity for the city. Read more

Related news: Eskom this week implemented national stage 4 loadshedding

Moerane said that the strategy would see the city sourcing 200MW of electricity supplies from Photovoltaics (PV) farms and rooftop suppliers. An additional 200MW will be introduced through electricity ‘wheeling and trading’, he said.

The strategy also includes sourcing up to 50MW of gas-powered electricity generation and 25MW generated from waste-to-energy.

In total, the strategy is designed to secure almost 500MW of new generating capacity. This will enable the city to effectively shift from the traditional supplier Eskom to alternative energy sources, Moerane said.

Related news: The Mayor recently doubled down on his announcement that the city will not implement loadshedding on their residents who have accounts directly with the municipality. Read more

City Power Chief Engineer Paul Vermeulen said: “The energy mix plan entails that instead of being entirely dependent on Eskom, which is struggling with the current load, we have alternative energy mixes that include but are not limited to gas and solar assist in the peak period.”

“The plan is to make things easier for Eskom but at the same time be driving the migration to City Power,” added Vermeulen.

Author: Bryan Groenendaal

1 Comment

  1. Leonard Kamezza on

    This is a very good initiative!!!! We need individuals to be able to sell power and help out. You produce more than what you need, you sell the rest.

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