Gauteng Premier David Makhura on Friday joined New Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Moerane at the Kelvin Power station, where the city signed a power purchase agreement.
The agreement will see an additional power supply of 100MW – up from 80MW – to Johannesburg households and businesses.
The new agreement will ensure that City Power is able to guarantee the reliable electricity supply to Johannesburg, and mitigate against load-shedding.
“The agreement we signed today answers the questions that have been in the minds of many since we started speaking about plans to take over the supply of electricity by Eskom in Johannesburg communities,” said Mayor Moerane.
This new agreement comes at a time when Eskom is constrained from providing additional capacity, which deems extending the current Kelvin agreement necessary for a further two years.
“The challenges of prolonged electricity outages in Eskom serviced areas that include Soweto, Ivory Park, Orange Farm, Finetown, as well as Diepsloot and Sandton, made it urgent for the city to enter into the new agreement on Kelvin,” said the mayor.
He said the agreement will assist the city to move from the position where power outages are normalised in some Johannesburg communities, especially where the majority are living below the breadline.
“The city, through City Power, had entered into a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with the Kelvin Power Station owners, Aldwych Consortium,” said Moerane.
“This agreement was due to expire in a month’s time. The expiry of the old agreement has made it necessary for the two partners to enter into a new agreement to ensure continuity of reliable power supply in the city.”
Meanwhile, Eskom announced on Thursday that it was implementing stage 2 load-shedding which would carry on through to Saturday morning.
The power utility said the move was meant to help it replenish emergency generation reserves.
Eskom implemented load-shedding from 9 pm on Thursday to 5 am on Friday.
Load-shedding will again resume on Friday night at 9 pm to 5 am on Saturday morning.
