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April 2016
Energy Efficiency, Green Building & IBTs
A
ccording to Executive Mayor,
Patricia de Lille, “We have re-
alised that we cannot leave the
future of energy security in the hands
of Eskom. We must take our destiny
into our own hands and work with
our partners. We have re-evaluated
our role in terms of energy supply and
no longer want tomerely be distribu-
tors of electricity but want to become
energy creators as well.”
The City of Cape Town has taken
a strategic decision to relook at their
approach to energy and the business
model underpinning its electricity
department. “We have started work
on a number of projects where we
are creating a new model for energy
generation and distribution. We are
using our Steenbras Dam to effec-
tively avoid stage 1 load shedding,
as well as the implementation of low
curtailment schemes in some of our
industrial areas. Some companies
have been able to instantaneously
reduce their energy usage thereby
avoiding a total shut down,” she said.
De Lille is proud of the fact that
Cape Town is the first city in South
Africa with a feed-in tariff for house-
holds, who are generating their own
electricity through photovoltaic (PV)
panels, and want to feed excess elec-
tricity into the city’s grid.
She says this allows households
and businesses to play a part in pro-
viding energy solutionswhilebuilding
local resilience for the future.
“We have signed small-scale
embedded electricity generation
contracts with Black River Park In-
vestments and 17 other major com-
mercial industrial customers who are
able to feed electricity into the grid.
We have also signed contracts with 43
residential customers who are able
to feed into the grid in a legal and
responsible manner.”
She cites other examples of en-
ergy efficiency such as retrofitting
the lights in our buildings, as well as
traffic and street lights. All 1 500 traf-
fic lights now have efficient LED light
bulbs and more than 25 000 street
lights have been retrofitted. These
initiatives, conducted progressively
over the past six financial years, have
saved over 70 000 Megawatt hours,
which translates into savings of over
R100 million. The lighting retrofit-
ting of the Civic Centre is currently
underway where around 20 000 light
fittings are being upgraded to LED
technology, with occupancy sen-
sors linked to timers and daylight
harvesting. The payback period is less
than three years, and the electricity
demand saving of 1.2 Megawatts will
save an additional R6 million in the
first year, and more than R36 million
over the next five years.
Another vital component of the
city’s energy security programme has
been the installation of more than
45 000 solar water heaters on roofs
across Cape Town. The solar water
heater programme has so far added
R774million into the economy and in
this last year alone has saved almost
120 000 MWh of electricity, resulting
in savings of over R256 million for
residents.
“We are also engaging National
Government on building our own
renewable energy plants, purchasing
directly from Independent Power Pro-
ducers (IPPs), and bringing natural
gas to the Western Cape. We have set
ourselves a target of sourcing 10% to
20%of our energy needs from renew-
able sources by 2020,” says de Lille.
She concludes, “We know that we
must reduce our own dependence on
electricity sales. The future is renew-
able energy, not nuclear.”
■
City aims to be energy secure
In a bid to continue on an upward trajectory of economic growth and
job creation, the City of Cape Town aims to look at alternative ways
of procuring energy for the city and province.