- Off-gridding is reframed as a continuum of practices and processes that combine technical, social, and organisational dimensions.
- Decentralised energy solutions can both alleviate and reinforce historic urban inequalities, reshaping the state-citizen relationship.
- Insights from South Africa offer a framework for understanding urban energy transitions across Africa amid global decarbonisation and just transition agendas.
A recent study from the University of Cambridge introduces a new lens for understanding urban energy transitions in South Africa, conceptualising off-gridding as a dynamic continuum rather than a fixed state. The paper by Joanna Jasmine Watterson titled ‘Towards a framework of ‘off-gridding’: Conceptualising the practices and processes of urban energy transitions in South Africa,’ examines how end-users, government bodies, and emergent actors interact in shaping urban energy infrastructures, highlighting the material, social, and organisational dimensions of decentralised energy practices.
The study identifies three main pathways through which urban residents engage with electricity networks. Higher-income consumers often pursue grid secession, insulating themselves from an unreliable electricity supply. Lower-income groups may experience marginalisation, with limited access to the formal grid. Most frequently, households across income levels supplement the grid with alternative energy sources such as solar systems. These practices take place within the enduring spatial inequalities shaped by apartheid urban planning, the ongoing electricity crisis, and contradictions between state mandates and actual delivery.
Field research across Cape Town and Johannesburg, including interviews with municipal officials, private sector generators, distributors, and civil society actors, shows how these interactions reconfigure both the physical and political meaning of the grid. Municipalities selectively support or constrain different forms of hybrid and supplementary systems, for example incentivising solar home systems while restricting private mini-grid developments in informal settlements. These decisions risk reinforcing historical inequalities and challenge the realisation of a genuinely just energy transition.
Beyond the South African context, the framework of off-gridding provides a valuable tool for analysing decentralised urban energy transitions in other post-colonial and unequal cities. It shifts focus from static infrastructure conditions to the everyday practices and institutional processes that drive hybrid energy configurations. By linking local actions with broader political and economic dynamics, the framework reveals the ways decentralised systems can either reproduce or mitigate inequality, offering critical insights for policymakers, energy developers, and urban planners committed to just and sustainable energy futures.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
