- Cape Town plans to gradually exit from the monopoly of the South African state-owned utility Eskom.
- Eskom’s frequent load shedding is considered the reason.
- The city plans to purchase electricity from renewable sources
The city of Cape Town is set to diversify its electricity supply sources. In a recent release, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced his intention to turn to independent power producers (IPPs) to reduce the impact of load shedding on households and businesses in the city.
Within the next two weeks, the municipality plans to issue calls for expressions of interest to select IPPs to inject clean electricity into the Cape Town grid.
This announcement comes as Eskom struggles to keep lights on in the cities and among other major electricity consumers, including mining operators. At the root of this unease is the resurgence of load shedding, which paralyses South Africa’s economic activities.
“It has become clear to the City of Cape Town that if we want to stop the damage caused by Eskom’s monopoly on power generation, we have to take matters into our own hands. The only way we can provide reliable and affordable electricity to our residents is to bring it in from elsewhere,” Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said.
Faced with the resurgence of load shedding, the authorities in charge of regulating the energy sector have decided to liberalise the industry to allow certain cities to obtain supplies directly from IPPs.