Cape Town residents to earn cash for surplus solar power

Bloomberg reports that Cape Town is pioneering a groundbreaking initiative to compensate residential households for surplus solar power generated from their installations, marking a significant milestone for the country grappling with frequent power cuts.

"We are committed to purchasing all the solar power that households and businesses are willing to supply to us," said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on Monday,

Furthermore, the city will facilitate energy transactions among businesses, potentially adding 350 megawatts of decentralized electricity to Cape Town's grid, according to Hill-Lewis.

South Africa has been plagued by regular power outages due to years of neglect and mismanagement of its state-owned utility, which operates as a monopoly and struggles to meet demand.

The country is currently experiencing severe stage 5 outages, resulting in up to 10 hours of electricity cuts daily.

Cape Town, a major tourist destination governed by the opposition Democratic Alliance since 2006, leads the way in securing its own power supply.

Under its plan, the city aims to incorporate up to 1 gigawatt of independently generated electricity gradually, with the initial 650 megawatts to be added within five years. This includes small-scale embedded generation by private entities and an independent producer programme.

Additionally, households can opt to have their water-heating systems remotely deactivated during peak periods to mitigate the need for widespread power cuts, locally known as load-shedding.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his state-of-the-nation address on February 9, expressed confidence that the end of load-shedding is near due to government interventions.

However, Mayor Hill-Lewis disagreed with the president's optimism, asserting that South Africa's energy crisis has only worsened over the past two decades.

"It's evident that load-shedding has escalated after each such promise," Hill-Lewis stated. "It's clear to everyone now that we cannot rely on those responsible for creating the crisis to resolve it. We must take action ourselves."