The FF Plus has commended the City of Tshwane for its recently-created policies on small-scale local power generation and trade that will create business opportunities for residents to generate electricity using solar panels and selling their surplus to the municipality’s power grid.
Party councillor Mark Surgeon said it was high time to implement them seeing that more and more solar panel systems were being installed in homes and businesses.
“These decisions follow the surge in the demand for embedded small-scale power generation due to the rising costs of electricity and the threat that load shedding poses to the South African power grid,” he said.
The policies, he said, were also in sync with his party’s policy that power generation should be decentralised, empowering communities to become more self-sufficient.
“This policy is a step in the right direction for creating a framework within which the metro can explore more business opportunities in this sector, while facilitating a free market so small-scale power producers can transact with one another,” he said.
He explained that in terms of the small-scale embedded generation policy, the municipality may authorise network connections for small-scale embedded generators of up to 1 MVA without requiring a generation licence.
“Installations of 1 MVA or more require a generation licence or a letter of exemption by the national energy regulator of South Africa (Nersa) otherwise their application will be rejected,” he said.
According to him, all installations with the sole aim of generating and selling electricity will also require a Nersa licence regardless of their size.
Surgeon said: “The trading policy enables the metro to facilitate access to the power distribution network, allowing small-scale generators to sell surplus electricity to the metro. This policy framework requires the metro to charge a tariff, in accordance with the Electricity Regulation Act, for private energy suppliers’ use of its distribution network.”
The implementation of new energy policies is subject to a public consultation process to be undertaken soon by the City.
This comes after the council approved a report on small-scale embedded generation and the wheeling policies aimed at providing better energy security and facilitating the ever-changing energy landscape in the city.
The use of renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic, it was said, was as part of the municipality’s plan to lessen its dependence on the national grid under Eskom.
Utility Services MMC, Themba Fosi, said growing population and expanding infrastructure electricity demand has extremely surged and placed strain on power supply systems, including the national grid.
“To address these demands the energy task team which is led by the executive mayor is implementing this small scale embedded generation initiative. This includes investing in renewable energy sources, primarily solar power,” he said.
Pretoria News