Municipalities might become an obstacle in the way of private power

[Hanno Labuschagne]

Municipalities might become an obstacle in the way of private power

Municipalities could become a significant stumbling block for businesses that want to build private generating capacity to supply their own power.

Lifting the threshold for private power generation to 100MW has drawn praise from business leaders, energy experts, and economists. However, there are still some hurdles to overcome before these builds are approved.

While the businesses no longer require a generating licence to embark on these projects, they must still be registered with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).

 

[TheChamp]

Truth is municipalities want to deliver us from the clutches of Eskom so that they can nail us without any interference.

 

[Iwojima]

National gov should allow Eskom to take over the licensing for distribution of electricity in any munic area in which maintenance and payment levels (munic to Eskom) are not satisfactory. Part of which should be an option to physically take over any network infrastructure from a munic to settle any debt.

Let Eskom then proceed rapidly with the separation of the business into the 3 separate Generation, Transmission and Distribution businesses and remove any futher barriers to private generation.

 

[CataclysmZA]

Truth is municipalities want to deliver us from the clutches of Eskom so that they can nail us without and interference.

Kouga Municipality last year put out RFI's from relevant parties about solar farm viability in the area.

They definitely want to remain the sole provider of electricity in the area.

 

[mister]

“There is now an opportunity for municipalities to buy cheaper power from independent power producers and thereby increase their profit margin, or pass the benefit on to their end consumers, thereby setting themselves apart from other municipalities,” Fourie said.

f4ck me that's some hilarious shite!

 

[Willie Trombone]

How about Eskom direct? Can I supply?

 

[Kawak]

Using profits from electricity to subsidies other services just won't work anymore. That is what the municipalities need to wake up to, they need to redraw their budget, trim the fat, relook at revenue streams cause this one is drying up.

 

[nicroets]

Here in Pretoria East municipal power was very unreliable last year. 2 multi day outages totaling 10 days! The apartment building doesn't allow each unit to have solar geysers or even rooftop solar. Therefore, the municipality lost it's right prevent the body corporate from supplying power to the units.

We have a similar situation with security: Neighbourhoods no longer ask the municipality for permission to control access. They just file their plans with the municipality, erect fences and gates (booms) and then rely on the protection of the courts.