Cape Town and Johannesburg are ramping up plans to “load-shed Eskom” in a scramble to limit the ruinous consequences of rotating blackouts imposed by the ailing power utility — but doing so won’t be as straightforward as flicking a switch.
Residents in both metros will endure a “very difficult winter” before their city authorities can achieve a greater degree of energy autonomy.
City Power in Johannesburg said this week “load-limiting” would reduce overall household consumption by remotely switching off power to homes if the occupants ignore requests to turn off power-hungry geysers, stoves and airconditioners. It is also pursuing plans to procure about 480MW of reserve power to avoid all but the worst load-shedding stages.
Cape Town is negotiating to take over Eskom-owned infrastructure to better manage the grid under its care, while investing R2.3bn in additional power generation. The city is already shielding its direct customers from two load-shedding stages using its Steenbras Dam hydroelectric plant, and expects to offer a further stage of protection by early next year. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis believes the city may be in a position to safeguard itself from load-shedding in three years.
“The city has commenced engagement with Eskom to investigate options for taking over Eskom service areas and is assessing the costs and consequences of this to [our] electricity business model,” said Beverley van Reenen, member of the mayoral committee for energy.
Eskom said the talks were at a sensitive stage. “The city did express interest in some Eskom-supplied areas within the city’s jurisdiction. The mandate for the continuation of the discussions ... is being revisited within Eskom’s governance structures.”
There is growing frustration in households supplied directly by Eskom. These customers do not benefit from the load-shedding relief that the Steenbras power gives those who are supplied via the city. Macassar residents, supplied directly by Eskom, have been without power for days on end due to the combined impact of load-shedding and vandalism.
Eskom is collapsing right before our eyes. If citizens want to see just how dark South Africa will become, in the near future, they do not have to look any further than Macassar
— Ward councillor Peter Helfrich
“Eskom is collapsing right before our eyes,” said Macassar ward councillor Peter Helfrich. “If citizens want to see just how dark South Africa will become, in the near future, they do not have to look any further than Macassar.”
City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava said the immediate plan for Johannesburg was to “load-limit” households to avoid the lower load-shedding stages. “Load-limiting means that we reduce your usage at home; instead of having the luxury of your geyser, stove or airconditioner on at the same time, it will then be limited to use.”
The city is deploying “smart meters” and communication gadgets allowing it to monitor individual customers’ consumption.
EThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said in March the metro planned to reduce reliance on the national grid by 20% by 2025 and be energy independent by 2035.
Experts agree there are numerous legislative and technical obstacles to “energy independence” from Eskom. In terms of the National Electricity Regulation Act municipalities are prohibited from supplying, operating or responding to electricity faults in Eskom supply areas.
In addition, to mitigate against load-shedding municipalities must be able to add sufficient backup power to the grid without compromising its stability.
Cape Town’s plan includes a R1.2bn solar and battery project on a 400ha site outside Somerset West, as well as a R288m “power heroes” campaign to encourage voluntary consumption cuts at peak times.
Johannesburg has identified 14 key projects to create 500MW of extra capacity in addition to the power it gets from the private Kelvin power station.
Cape Town and Johannesburg are working with businesses to limit the impact on their local economies. Cape Town wants to create load-shedding exemptions for certain “substation” areas by incentivising businesses to rely more on renewables. The city has scheduled an “energy emergency dialogue” for June 15 with key industrial stakeholders.
Hill-Lewis concedes there are uncertainties about using baseload power to mitigate load-shedding, as illustrated by the legal drama in the Free State town of Frankfort, where Eskom prevented the local municipality using locally procured power to avoid load-shedding.
The supplier in that case, Chris Bosch from Rural Maintenance, said Cape Town had better prospects than Frankfort with “the correct mix [of power supply]. It is definitely possible that the city can go off-grid in a relatively short time,” Bosch said.
Smaller towns in the Western Cape can apply to join a pilot project under which the provincial government will provide containerised solar systems with battery storage. About 100,000 indigent households will also get load-shedding kits comprising a charging device, a rechargeable light and a cooking bag in a R60m provincial initiative.
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