City Power meets Minister of Electricity on plans to end load-shedding

City Power, an entity of the City of Johannesburg, has vowed to work closely with the Minister of Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as he seeks to improve the capacity of the national grid to end load-shedding.

The City Power delegation that met the minister was led by board chairperson Bonolo Ramokhele, CEO Tshifularo Mashava, group executive Meyrick Ramatlo and other senior managers and engineers.

At the meeting, City Power elaborated on the implementation of its 10-point plan with short and long-term solutions involving energy alternatives to cushion the city residents from the current impact of load-shedding.

The entity said its plans include the onboarding of independent power producers for both short and long-term, the installation of rooftop solar systems, ripple relay and load-limiting systems, investment in energy efficiency and energy management systems, solar high mast and geysers, and the recommissioning of open-cycle gas turbines.

Ramokgopa commended City Power’s initiatives and indicated they were in sync with the ministry’s plans which in the main, target recovery in the next 120 days, adding that the main concern was Eskom’s capacity to take the country through the winter peak and avoid the higher stages of load-shedding.

He said City Power had a crucial role to play in the whole scenario of the fight against load-shedding in the entire country since it is the biggest electricity-consuming municipality.

“Your effect on the national picture is big. If we are to do with you what we intend to do, we will be able to deal with at least two stages of load-shedding across the country. With you on board I am confident we can avoid the worst,” Ramokgopa added.

City Power’s Ramokhele said the energy crisis was the key focus of his board and the shareholders. “We do appreciate the gravity of the situation. The key priority of the government of local unity in Joburg is the energy crisis.

“What we have been given as a task for the board and City Power is to deal with the impact of load-shedding in the immediate and long term. We are hard at work with the CEO [Tshifularo Mashava] and her team finalising some of the plans to ensure the right implementation.

We are repurposing the budgets to ensure we effectively respond to this crisis. The main aim is to invest in baseload power through the energy mix we will get from the other power producers,’’ said Ramokhele.

“We are looking at improving our network whose backlog is sitting at about R26bn. If you solve Johannesburg, you solve Gauteng and you are halfway there in solving the whole country. The good thing about City Power is that technical capacity is there, political will is there, management will is there,” Ramokhele added.

City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava said the entity has finished with the plans to address load-shedding and is now on the implementation path. “We are happy to say all the initiatives have started.

“We are in execution mode currently, with a new department created specifically to implement our plans. We have been hard at work crunching numbers, simulating, planning, and auditing what as far as infrastructure is concerned, works and what doesn’t,” she said.

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