City sets call to action to ensure secure energy supply to Cape Town
The current electricity load-shedding experiences have shaken confidence in many sectors of our population and economy. Seemingly out of the blue, the same scenarios of 2008 are back and residents and businesses are finding themselves in difficulty.
As such, the City of Cape Town, which is the fastest growing metro in the country, today held an emergency meeting with Eskom to discuss the reasons behind the load shedding, specifically given the assurances of Eskom over the last few years that the electricity supplies were being secured.
We sought reasons why, despite the enormous effort that this City and its residents have put into energy conservation - having firmly reduced its electricity consumption, despite significant increase in the City's population - the City still has to endure load shedding.
In the short-term, the City, with Eskom, is also exploring more suitable load-shedding schedules that will have a lower overall impact on our residents and our economy. We have also shared with Eskom our dissatisfaction over the poor notification periods that the City receives and the poor communication that Eskom has with the public when load shedding changes are made.
Looking at the medium to longer term, it is clear that the model of electricity supply of the past 100 years is no longer sustainable.