Municipal Energy Resilience Projected launched for a more energy secure future in WCape – Davie Maynier
24 November 2020
We are pleased to announce the official launch of the three-year Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) Project to assist municipalities to take advantage of the new energy regulations, which may include purchasing energy directly from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), so that we can create a more energy secure future in the Western Cape.
The MER Project will help municipalities across the Western Cape to understand the requirements of the new national energy regulations, and mitigate related risks as well as provide for network and operational capacity requirements for energy project development and procurement in municipalities.
The MER Project is spearheaded by our Green Economy unit at the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, who are working in collaboration with the Department of Local Government and Provincial Treasury to enable the development of energy projects and engage with municipalities on multiple fronts.
The procurement of energy at utility and municipal distribution scale, such as bulk energy purchases from IPPs, under conditions of developing and evolving policies and regulations is a complex and challenging task. Municipalities may not have the policies, plans, resources, funding, or procurement expertise to procure wholesale electricity from sources other than Eskom, specifically IPPs. Neither have all municipalities’ electricity distribution systems been technically evaluated to clarify their readiness to support new electricity generation and energy trading.