Western Cape Energy Resilience Programme

The programme builds off from the Western Cape Municipal Energy Resilience Initiative, but with interventions being scaled up and sped up and several new interventions added.

The different elements of the Western Cape Energy Resilience Programme will be run by several WCG departments including: Department of the Premier, Department of Infrastructure, Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Department of Agriculture, Department of Local Government, Department of Environmental Affairs & Development Planning, Department of Social Development, Western Cape Education, Provincial Treasury, Department of Health, and Department of Community Safety. The Core Energy Team in the Department of the Premier co-ordinates the work and the Premier plays the lead oversight role through chairing the Western Cape Energy Council.

1. Load shedding relief:

• Support is being given to WCG departments and municipalities to ensure that service delivery is maintained. The provision of diesel generators is being supported while alternative energy systems are invested in.
• Lower Living Standards Measures (LSM) households will be supported through the provision of emergency loadshedding packs.
• SMMEs are to be supported with co-funding towards alternative energy systems.

2. Western Cape Integrated Resource Plan

• The WC IRP will be developed to identify the preferred future pathways in the electricity sector in the Province and to enable the procurement of projects in a cost-optimal manner.

3. Demand side management:

• A communications campaign will be rolled out to the public around managing demand and the efficient use of energy.
• A demand-side management programme for the Province will be invested in depending on agreement with National regarding potential buffering of loadshedding for the Western Cape should provincial energy demand be reduced by an agreed percentage. This could include:
  
  • Incentivizing the use of energy efficient products and services for the public
  • Piloting a load management system to help manage the peak

4. New energy generation:

• Transaction advisory support is being provided to Stellenbosch Municipality to support the implementation of municipal independent power producer procurement (MIPPP). The results and learnings from this work will be used for further MIPPP projects. A project preparation facility is being established in the new Department of Infrastructure (DoI) that will advance this work as well as provide support on other renewable energy generation and/or procurement options with further municipalities.
• A pooled buying mechanism options analysis and business case are being developed to explore the establishment of a multi-jurisdictional municipal pooled buying mechanism for the procurement of renewable energy from IPP/s for participant Western Cape municipalities. The options being explored include municipal individual IPP procurement, municipal renewable energy procurement via energy traders, multi-buyer scheme and municipal power pool arrangements, regional pooling arrangement, provincial power pool and agency-based procurement.
• The Department of Local Government (DLG) will test alternative renewable energy solutions in municipalities to find a more sustainable approach (than diesel generators) to maintaining critical services during loadshedding.
• Wheeling & SSEG work continues to enable the scale up of wheeling and SSEG solutions, tapping into private sector investments aimed at building business energy resilience:
  
  • Wheeling: An impact assessment of wheeling on municipal revenue is underway to help municipalities in their decision-making regarding wheeling. Use of systems agreements for wheeling are being developed to help standardise wheeling legal arrangements between private developers and municipalities.
  • Wheeling frameworks and tariffs have been developed for seven municipalities, with further support to be provided in the implementation of these.
  • A study profiling the future energy demand of high private sector electricity users in the Western Cape has been undertaken to help municipalities to understand current and future needs and to help us collectively assess grid capacity where it may be needed.
  • SSEG frameworks are in place for 24 Western Cape municipalities and feed-in tariffs are in place for 19 Western Cape municipalities, with further support being provided to review and strengthen these as needed.
• The green economy ecosystem support work will continue to provide ongoing support to businesses wanting to improve their energy efficiency and / or install renewable energy systems. The energy-related market intelligence reports, that provide key and updated information to the energy sector are developed annually, indicating any changes in market conditions and opportunities and barriers to be unlocked to realise energy resilience. The industry support will also continue to obtain the voice of industry with regards to energy-related policy, regulatory and standards matters.
• The development of the green hydrogen (GH2) opportunity in Saldanha Bay continues, in partnership with the Northern Cape and Namibia.
• The development of WCG options around Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) are being further explored.

5. Network development:

• Work has been undertaken to better understand Eskom transmission and distribution capacity and expansion and strengthening plans. Further extensive work will now be undertaken on municipal grid transmission and upgrade planning and costing (based off the updated municipal electricity master plans (EMP) funded by WCG) to be able to move new energy that is generated to where it is needed.
• This work will also inform both WCG and municipal investment planning and private sector investments. As part of this work, the department of Local Government will be scaling up funding for municipalities to update their EMPs to allow for renewable energy at scale by identifying municipal grid capacity, where strengthening is required, and where private sector players can connect into the grid (SSEG/wheeling) etc.

6. Increased investment:

• Engagements with strategic, financial and energy stakeholders and national players have taken place to understand the complexities of work being undertaken and the work that is being done or planned elsewhere. This will continue in a structured and collaborative manner to match donor funding and favourable finance with suitable projects.
• The work will be guided by the development of a Western Cape Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP).
• Increasing focus will be placed on the development and/or identification of financial mechanisms that could help to scale energy projects.