Disruptions within the electricity sector, ranging from Eskom’s financial crisis to disruptions caused by new technologies, as well as the imperative of climate change response, require a reconsideration of how the City needs to position itself in the changing energy and urban landscapes.

This important shift in the City’s thinking around energy led to the creation of a dedicated Energy and Climate Change Directorate as part of its restructuring process at the end of 2018.

The City recognises that the future lies in greater decentralisation and diversification of energy generation with complementary technologies like gas and renewables providing lower cost and cleaner solutions.

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Our outdated electricity regime, however, forces us to be dependent on Eskom for our energy requirements.

This is contrary to our efforts to reduce emissions and buy cleaner sources of power that is in line with our global commitment to ramp up our climate action so that it is compatible with the Paris Climate Agreement. This agreement is about keeping the global warming increase to 1,5 degrees Celsius and, to do this, carbon neutral cities are required by 2050.

Carbon neutrality is of utmost importance if we are to protect our collective future.

As one part of our immediate action plan, we’ve approached the courts as we want the Minister of Energy to allow us to buy cleaner renewable energy from independent power producers.

Once this is permitted, we can also provide a greater measure of energy security and control over future electricity costs.

The City has requested the courts to treat this as a matter of urgency.

As a City, we encourage all other metros, as the growth engines of our country, to join us and to actively participate in constructive responses to mitigate the impact of the electricity supply shortage on the commercial sector especially.

We simply cannot afford the devastation that load-shedding causes to our economy. It provides further imperative to ensure that we procure diversified energy sources.

Due to our dependency on Eskom, there is very little that we as a metro can do to help reduce the impact of load-shedding on our businesses and residences since the energy constraints are on the supply side.

Nevertheless, the City is fortunate to have a large energy storage system in the form of the Steenbras Hydro-electric power scheme. This allows us to manage the severity of load-shedding by adding generating capacity during instances of energy shortage.

If for instance Eskom announces Stage 1 load-shedding, the City, due to spare generation capacity from the Steenbras scheme, has been able to avoid load-shedding in the past.

Currently, Steenbras is undergoing much-needed maintenance which means that its full capacity is not available to mitigate load-shedding.

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This maintenance is vital to ensure that the City can make use of this valuable resource into the future.   

The maintenance was planned as electricity usage is the lowest at this time of the year, which would ideally have had a minimal impact on City customers.

As the municipality, we also need to be energy-wise and lead by example. The City continues to save energy in its own operations. From 2009 to 2016 the programme saved over 170 000 MWh, which translates into savings of R143 million and 170 000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Capetonians in general have reduced their consumption significantly, in fact to the extent that Cape Town is consuming less electricity than it did in 2007.

The concept of resilience has become synonymous with Cape Town as a world leader in water demand and conservation management. We all worked together to beat an unprecedented drought though partnership, innovation and absolute dedication.

As we work towards becoming a water-sensitive city, so too are we looking at future-proofing our city in general. Climate change brings much uncertainty but we have the opportunity now to determine the path ahead.

It must be built on the longer-term goal of achieving carbon neutrality.

For a city like Cape Town, being carbon neutral is synonymous with creating a cleaner, more equitable, resource efficient, safer and more resilient city. In the process, we not only become more globally competitive but we also learn to thrive on innovation and entrepreneurship, generating sustainable livelihoods and providing affordable and accessible services to our residents.

Projects and initiatives which are already contributing towards this journey include:

• Pursuing the City of Cape Town’s right to buy and own renewable energy generation
• Active support for rooftop PV installation through regulations, tariffs and promotion
• Investigating the feasibility of small City-owned renewable energy generation plants
• Developing a Low-carbon New Build Programme which focuses on policies and programmes to ensure that all new buildings are designed and built to be carbon neutral, and that retrofits of existing buildings are as energy efficient as possible
• Developing waste to energy projects: Cape Town’s first 1 Megavolt Amp project at the Coastal Park Landfill is already under way.
• Developing an Electric Vehicle (EV) Framework to guide Cape Town’s future EV transition
• Our newly adopted Municipal Spatial Development Framework which aims to curb urban sprawl by focusing on inward growth and transit-oriented development. This aims to significantly reduce Cape Town’s carbon footprint, bring more vulnerable Capetonians closer to jobs, and improve public transport viability and accessibility

To reach carbon neutrality, efforts will need to be ramped up and a strong case made by highlighting the multiple benefits of a decarbonised electricity supply, accelerating building efficiency, rapidly shifting to next generation mobility (such as electric vehicles) and eliminating waste. It will also require embedding this work across City planning and monitoring systems.

The City cannot travel on this path towards carbon neutrality on its own. We will need to create the right conditions and an enabling environment for strong partnerships, such as what we have through this forum already.

There is much work to be done and we need to do it together.

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