Western Cape Government’s energy summit
Just days after President, Cyril Ramaphosa, unveiled his government’s energy crisis plan, The Western Cape Government (WCG) wasted no time in intensifying its efforts to tackle the country’s power generation issues.
As part of the WCG’s ongoing efforts, bold proposals and solutions were put on the table for serious and speedy consideration. Included in that were measures the WCG firmly believes will help end power cuts and other impediments to energy generation:
Independent power producers: The summit was told there has been an encouraging response from the IPP market nationally since the announcement of the exemption for licensing embedded generation plants under 100 MW, with more expected following the removal of licensing requirements. The Provincial Government is working with municipalities to plan for increasing renewable energy implementation on municipal networks to support the connection of these IPPs to the grid.
Green hydrogen: Green hydrogen has great potential to help alleviate the energy shortfall. It can be used for transport fuels and exported to fuel the international drive for net zero carbon. Exploration is under way to take advantage of the Western Cape being well positioned to produce green hydrogen.
Skills: Retaining skills and attracting people who no longer work in the various fields of power production to come back to service was also a strong feature.