The City of Tshwane is asking residents, businesses and other stakeholders to submit comments on the proposed lease of a portion of the remainder of Portion 1 of the farm Rooiwal 270-JR (known as Rooiwal Power Station) and a portion of the remainder of Portion 6 and Portion 22 of the farm Pretoria Town and Townlands 351-JR (known as Pretoria West Power Station). The City wants to lease these two City-owned power stations to the market by means of a competitive bidding process for the generation of alternative energy solutions.
On Monday, 18 September 2023, the Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Cllr Cilliers Brink, outlined the City’s plan to procure and generate at least 1 000 MW of power independently of the state-run power producer, Eskom. The plan arises from the need to reduce the City’s dependence on Eskom and to alleviate the burden of load shedding.
Securing energy has been a concern for the City of Tshwane for close to a decade. Every day, rolling blackouts make us poorer, degrade our infrastructure and chip away at the funding model of local government, which has thus far depended on the electricity distribution business. The excessive wear and tear caused by load shedding damages our infrastructure, depletes our repairs and maintenance budgets, and creates proactive opportunities for criminals to attack and strip our electricity installations.
In May this year, during the State of the Capital Address, the Executive Mayor highlighted that one of his immediate priorities was to reduce the number of unscheduled electricity outages and to mitigate the effects of load shedding by producing and procuring energy independently of Eskom.
A Tshwane Energy Task Team has been established. This team has five focus areas for interventions that can be summarised as follows:
- Securing the energy baseload independently of Eskom and developing an energy mix master plan that will be informed by techno-economic energy modelling with scientific recommendations for renewable energy technologies that are suitable for the City, as prescribed in the Council-approved Climate Action Plan.
- Enabling the policy, legal and regulatory framework to finalise the embedded generation policy and the wheeling policy framework, as well as guidelines to enable the plethora of requests to wheel power through the Tshwane grid.
- Managing demand by focusing on how we can reduce our demand for electricity, starting with the City’s own buildings.
- Ensuring disaster management and energy resilience in the face of disaster. The team has developed a disaster response plan for severe load shedding and extended power disruptions or possible blackouts. This plan is currently in the process of being approved.
- Convening an energy indaba by November 2023 to communicate the approved policy suite as a forerunner to announcing a request for proposals for sustainable and alternative energy solutions to support the City’s transition to a sustainable and secure energy future.
The above-listed interventions, in part, rely on the two existing power stations for which the City is licenced to generate power, namely Rooiwal Power Station and Pretoria West Power Station.
Last week, Council approved a public participation report for the proposed lease of the power stations and approved a lease period of 40 years.
The two power stations were historically used to generate power for the City, but after the establishment of Eskom, this function was taken away from the municipality. The two power stations are producing energy at a minimum level in order to keep the stations functional.
Copies of the Council resolution pertaining to the lease of a portion of the remainder of Portion 1 of the farm Rooiwal 270-JR and a portion of the remainder of Portion 6 and Portion 22 of the farm Pretoria Town and Townlands 351-JR can be accessed on the City of Tshwane public website: https://www.tshwane.gov.za/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?juwpfisadmin=false&action=wpfd&task=file.download&wpfd_category_id=381&wpfd_file_id=60613 and at City of Tshwane customer care centres and libraries.
Written comments can be submitted to verusham@tshwane.gov.za or at Room 105, 1st Floor, Ou Raadsaal Building, Church Square, Pretoria.
Enquiries: Johanna Maenetsa (012 358 7389 or johannahmae@tshwane.gov.za)