Cape Town - In Premier Alan Winde’s weekly Energy Digicon, Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers elaborated on the R61.9 million his department allocated towards energy initiatives, one being that residents in indigent households will benefit from solar geyser installations to mitigate the energy crisis for the most vulnerable citizens.
Simmers said the department had dug deep into their pockets to find immediate solutions to the current energy crisis and allocated R61.9m towards various energy initiatives in the 2023/24 financial year.
“In support of the economy and society: R9.8m is budgeted for project preparation support for independent power producer procurement in Stellenbosch, R1m for project preparation support for exploring gas power, R3m for planning for grid and transmission infrastructure upgrades, and R24m for 976 indigent households to benefit from solar geyser installations as our contribution to mitigate the energy crisis for our most vulnerable citizens.”
Simmers said they would also help government facilities augment the energy shortage with two new solar PV installations at Karl Bremer Hospital and the Department of Agriculture.
Government sites and buildings would also benefit from battery energy storage systems rolled out for all suitable sites where PV was currently installed (general buildings), as well as more LED lighting roll-outs.
Winde added: “Our whole-of-government approach, which is applied to how the Western Cape Government (WCG) generally works, will be aggressively employed to resolve the energy crisis. Infrastructure development will be the backbone of our energy security drive.”
As this week’s Digicon took place during the WCG’s budget season, Winde said the provincial budget was officially approved, with over R1 billion allocated into the province’s energy resilience plan to mitigate the impact of blackouts.
Winde’s energy adviser, Alwie Lester, also gave an update on progress with the province’s energy resilience programme. To reduce the impact of load shedding, Lester said they would be implementing a demand side management programme to change the behaviour of residents in terms of the efficient use of energy.
This included piloting a load management system to manage the peak, a communications campaign around the efficient use of energy, the driving of an energy savings campaign that would form the basis of the WCG’s load shedding exemption request to Nersa, Eskom and the national government, incentivising the use of alternate energy systems for SMMEs, and incentivising the use of energy-efficient products and services for the public..
kristin.engel@inl.co.za