THE City of Joburg has taken a major step in its efforts to reduce its reliance on Eskom.
This comes as City Power has secured 92 megawatts of power from four independent power producers (IPPs) through a short-term power purchase agreement.
The big buy forms part of the entities 10-point plan to lessen the impact of load shedding in Joburg by 2030.
The MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Jack Sekwaila alongside City Power Board chairman Bonolo Ramokhele and CEO Tshifularo Mashava, revealed this on Thursday, 24 August as they shared their achievements in their rollout of the city’s energy plans.
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Sekwaila said a total of 16 bids were received, and four were successful, who will provide power from sources. These include waste to energy (20MW), gas to power (31MW) and photovoltaic solar generation (40,8MW).
According to CEO Mashava, the entity has made tremendous inroads to cushion Joburg residents from the gruelling effects of the ongoing load shedding.
"As a result, the main benefit for these purchase agreements is that the city will be procuring power from the four successful bidders, which are cheaper than what we currently procure from Eskom," she said.
In addition to the purchase agreements, City Power said it would be implementing a number of other initiatives to reduce the impact of load shedding.
These include installation of the rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems at its head office to pilot the rollout to at least 700 other sites across Joburg and the installation of 20 000 solar geysers as part of the entity’s demand side management programme to reduce peak demand and energy consumption
