Cilliers Brink, Executive Mayor of the City of Tshwane, said the energy summit held from the 19th – 20th June 2024, has helped the metro to prepare for future loadshedding.
Brink has over emphasized the need to break away from Eskom.
In a statement, he said “while we acknowledge the good efforts by Eskom to keep the lights on, there is still no guarantee that the dark days of prolonged load-shedding will not return, and
therefore we must do the necessary now for an energy-secure future for our metro.”
Eskom announced day 86 last Friday, without loadshedding, today, is day 90.
Spokesperson Daphne Mokwena, said in a power alert, that performance continues to exceed expectations, with current unplanned outages remaining at about 12,000 Megawatts.
But the Tshwane Summit drafted steps towards energy independence.
They include leasing out the Pretoria West and Rooiwal Power Stations to the private sector. He said there are talks with independent power producers for expertise on generating alternative green energy.
These two processes are aiming for a combined 1, 000 MW of energy from mixed independent sources by 2026.
About 300 MW is expected to come from Rooiwal Power Station, 180 MW from Pretoria West Power Station and the remaining 520 MW
from alternative energy sources.
The Summit was organized by the City of Tshwane, in partnership with the Tshwane Economic Development Agency
(TEDA). It was attended by 360 delegates and 18 exhibitors, including key decision makers, business executives, senior managers, as well as academic and research institutions.
Picture: Supplied