- On Wednesday, 12 March 2025, Premier Alan Winde hosted a digicon where he gave an update on the progress the Western Cape Government has made in building up the province’s energy and water security capabilities.
- This followed the first meeting of 2025 of the Western Cape Integrated Energy and Water Council.
- The province remains on track to reach the target of generating 5 700MW of energy by 2035 and could even become a net exporter of renewable energy by 2032.
“On the energy front, there has been impressive progress in municipalities such as the City of Cape Town and Hessequa, in the Southern Cape, to name just a few. Following the completion of a pilot project, Cape Town has now opened up its power grid to private investors through its electricity wheeling programme. And Hessequa Municipality’s 10MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project, to make the town of Riversdale load-shedding-free and independent of Eskom for its power needs, is already well under way.”
“This is how we can overcome the country’s energy crisis: by working with municipalities, the private sector and other role-players, to open the market up to competition and investment. This province has taken a major step towards democratising, diversifying, and decentralising energy generation, which is a key strategic objective of the Western Cape Energy Resilience programme. This is just one way in which we are helping businesses to create jobs. If we secure our energy and water needs, we can sufficiently drive economic growth,” noted the Premier.
He added, “The recent bouts of Eskom power cuts, however, are reminders that we must not let our guard down, we must keep pushing and implementing the Energy Resilience strategy. Our province and country remain on a knife edge as the national power grid is still very vulnerable. We will not be able to accelerate economic growth and job creation if we do not have a thriving energy sector.”
The Premier’s Special Adviser on Energy, Alwie Lester, pointed out that the nearly year-long reprieve from load shedding was primarily due to only critical maintenance being carried out at Eskom generating units, “But with that very limited maintenance, there was also risk to secondary systems at Eskom. This put a lot of pressure on peaking plants.”
The province remains on track to reach the target of generating 5 700MW of energy by 2035 and could even become a net exporter of renewable energy by 2032.
“In the last year, we have seen around 1 000MW of non-Eskom generation come into the province’s power system. In this coming year, we expect another 1 000MW non-Eskom power to come into the system,” noted Mr Lester.
This is reflected in the Western Cape Government’s Energy Dashboard, which provides a snapshot of the progress of various public-private sector initiatives in the province.
Of serious concern to the Western Cape Government is the recent approval by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) of the 12.74% hike in the electricity tariff for the 2025/26 financial year – an issue that was also raised at the meeting of the Western Cape Integrated Energy and Water Council. This increase is around 3 times higher than inflation.
Premier Winde slammed the increase, “This is well above inflation. How are already hard-pressed residents expected to absorb this blow? It is unconscionable and unaffordable.”
“We are still waiting for Eskom to announce how much it will be charging to sell electricity to municipalities. Any increase will put a further strain on our municipalities and therefore residents who get their energy from municipalities,” said Premier Winde.
At the council meeting, Eskom executives gave a presentation on several issues, including an explanation of what led to the most recent load-shedding that hit South Africa due, in larger part, to the unplanned shutdown of Unit 2 at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. Premier Winde expressed his deep concern over this, “This once again shows that we are on a knife edge and we must keep pushing hard to lessen our reliance on Eskom.”
The digicon then turned its attention to the critical area of water resilience. Graham Paulse, Head of the Western Cape Local Government Department, gave an overview of the Western Cape Water Resilience strategy which aims to achieve water resilience through the implementation of numerous programmes:
- Water Conservation & Demand Management,
- Augmentation,
- Infrastructure Development, and
- Governance.
The overarching priority of the plan is to secure a target of 341 million cubic metres of water per year for the residents of the province by 2035.
Mr Paulse highlighted that the Western Cape demonstrates outstanding performance in water management national benchmarks. “We work hard in this province to conserve water and to raise awareness around our water use. We are the lowest in terms of water losses, according to the 2023 Blue Drop Report.” This is due in large part to an increase in water infrastructure maintenance.
The Premier concluded, “Like we are seeing the outcomes of our laser-focused work on building energy resilience, I am looking forward to seeing similar outcomes for water. The protection of water is of paramount importance for the development and growth of our economy. In a challenging economic environment, it is important to use smart and integrated planning mechanisms that focus on a holistic approach when dealing with water. More and more people are moving to the Western Cape and that places added pressure on water supply and infrastructure.”
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
