Data from Orania could help to predict impact of Cape Town’s energy plan

15 February 2023

Data from Orania could help to predict the impact of Cape Town's energy plan.

The City of Cape Town's plan to make it easier for ordinary consumers to sell excess solar power to their municipality is attracting a lot of attention. The question of what impact it will have can partially be answered by looking at data from Orania.

This Northern Cape town has been buying power from households and businesses since 2019. More and more consumers installed solar systems on roofs. The city council decided to make it as easy as possible to register as a producing power consumer and to earn an appealing amount per unit – presently it is R1,51 per kW/h.

As a result, many of the households and businesses that have converted to solar power have also retained their connection to the town's power grid. A solar farm aimed exclusively at supplying power to the town is another result.

There are some households that disconnect from the grid or that never connected to it at all. Then there are also those who install solar systems, but fail to register for the buy-back agreement. That means there is additional generation capacity that cannot be taken into account with formal calculations.

Uncertainties aside, within just four years Orania has reached a point where 33% of all the power that is consumed is generated by residents themselves. The consequences of this are far-reaching:

Traditionally, Eskom invests in generation capacity. It is collected from municipalities in the form of a levy, which is saved in this case.

Moreover, the monthly electricity consumption bill is one of the biggest drains of local economies. Re-circulating a third of it translates to a significant investment in the local economy, without additional costs.

Lastly, the possibility exists that the entire town could be exempted from load shedding if storage capacity is added. Households and businesses that are already doing this no longer have to take this prominent characteristic of life in South Africa into account. To supply power to the grid during load shedding could justify a more attractive tariff, which will, in turn, stimulate more investment.

This is an example of a community that priorities investing in its own economy, which enables it to provide valuable information to local authorities that are moving at a slower pace.

Issued by Wynand Boshoff, FF Plus MP and chief spokesperson: Mineral Resources and Energy, 15 February 2023