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In continuing its pursuit of becoming largely independent from the national grid, the City of Cape Town has announced it is issuing its largest energy tender to date at 500 MW.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is confident the city will be the first metro to break free from Eskom’s hold, while ensuring meaningful economic growth and investment in the city.
Cape Town aims to offer protection from the first four stages of loadshedding within the next three years, through its R2.3-billion “Building Hope” budget.
The city is seeking competitive proposals from independent power producers focusing on dispatchable technologies, including gas-to-power and battery storage.
Hill-Lewis stresses that these power sources need to generate power for a significant portion of the day to support the city’s loadshedding protection efforts.
Notably, these dispatchable supply sources need not be located in a city-supply area.
Successful bidders will enter into a ten-year power purchase agreement with the city. The mayor points out there is potential for multiple bidders to be awarded contracts under this tender.
Meanwhile, the city remains on track to award final contracts in terms of the first phase of a 200 MW renewable energy tender. The city also expects to award contracts for preferred bidders in respect of its Power Heroes Programme tender, which involves a voluntary energy savings incentive scheme, in April.
Cape Town also recently issued a request for information on energy trading solutions, including market operation underwriting and aggregation services, which remains open for submissions until April 19. |
