Johannesburg – Embattled Joburg Mayor Dr. Mpho Phalatse on Thursday unveiled her just over R400 million plan to counter Eskom’s persistent load-shedding in the city.
Dr. Phalatse said: “Ultimately, we are working towards procuring an additional 500MW of electricity, which means off-setting up to Stage 5 load-shedding”.
Appearing unfazed by the no confidence motions she will face later today, Mayor Dr. Phalatse said City Power has costed an R401 million budget for a plan that could in the short-to-medium-term avert up to Stage 3 load-shedding.
The plan includes:
- At R20 million, we can recommission the two existing Open Cycle Gas Turbine Stations. This would of course require the City to procure and burn diesel. The City is already sitting with 1.2 million litres of diesel for these sites. This would add 74MW to the network when needed.
- At R85 million for Ripple Relay Systems, City Power will be able to remotely regulate high-energy use products such as geysers, swimming pool motors, and the like. This would save 80MW when needed.
- At R175 million the City will procure and distribute Smart Metres and communication that will enable City Power to be able to limit the amount of power distributed to homes, so instead of completely turning the power off, the City will be able to supply homes with enough energy to power essential needs. This will save an additional 322MW when needed. This will not be done on a whim but will be communicated to customers when needed. The communication system will require R28 million.
- This requires an Energy Management System upgrade, costing R120 million that will enable City Power to better monitor, control, and optimise the performance of its transmission system.
“Unfortunately, as the City, we are not sitting with R400 million that can be easily shifted towards this programme,” Mayor Dr. Phalatse said.
“We are therefore exploring the establishment of an infrastructure fund, and we will be approaching development finance institutions (DFIs), the private sector, and the provincial and national governments to fund this project, where we will be leveraging our status as the economic hub of the country and the good governance practices of the multi-party government.”
The mayor added: “City Power has expressed that if they were to get the money today, it would take up to six months to get this mitigation plan active given that much of the infrastructure is already in place.”
Eskom is implementing Stages 4 and 5 load-shedding for the next few days.
