The Western Cape government intends to spend nearly R70 million over the next couple years to assist municipalities in breaking their ties with Eskom.
In its new budget, tabled on Tuesday, the province allocated R48.8 million over the medium term, and provided a further R20 million in the provincial reserves, for a new project to help municipalities generate and sell their own power, as well as buy electricity from independent producers.
The project is aimed at helping the Western Cape beat load shedding, which is costing the province R75 million a day, said Western Cape provincial minister of finance and economic opportunities, David Maynier, in his budget speech.
In the next year, six municipalities will get assistance to start generating or buying their own power: Drakenstein, Mossel Bay, Overstrand, Saldanha Bay, Stellenbosch, and Swartland.
Among other interventions, their electricity distribution systems will be technically evaluated to confirm whether the municipalities can support new electricity generation and energy trading.
In 2020, the Western Cape issued two tenders to find service providers who can assist with “strategic advice” and project development to help municipalities establish their own power procurement and generation.
You can view the budget speech here
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