Cape Town’s Energy Directorate says it will spend R6-billion on electricity infrastructure over the next three years.

The goal, it says, is to secure the city’s energy needs, and to make electricity supply more reliable and affordable, by reducing the impact of rising Eskom tariffs and by adding cleaner energy sources to the mix.

The city's R6-billion medium-term energy budget includes R656-million for the rollout of renewable energy generation systems, with R589-million allocated to the Steenbras hydro plant.

These projects will specifically help the city to reduce its reliance on Eskom by diversifying its energy sources, says City of Cape Town Energy MMC Xanthea Limberg.

The medium-term budget also has an allocation of R159-million to support small-scale embedded generation, with R59-million going towards the municipal efficiency programme.

Some R165-million is earmarked to replace ageing streetlights with energy-efficient technology.

“Our teams are also working hard to electrify communities that still require access to electricity, with R44.8-million to be spent over the next three years,” says Limberg.

“In city-supplied areas, more than 97.8% of households, including informal settlements – where it is feasible to do so – have been connected to the grid.”

“As a power distributor, the Energy Directorate’s largest expense is to buy bulk energy from Eskom – some 70% of our tariff income goes to Eskom,” she adds.

Limberg says the National Energy Regulator of South Africa most recently approved a tariff increase of 8.76% for Eskom, resulting in a corresponding Eskom municipal tariff increase of 9.01%.

The city has limited this to a 6.64% average residential tariff increase – 2.37 percentage points lower than the Eskom increase to municipalities.