City of Ekurhuleni awards tenders to 46 renewable energy IPPs

The City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) has awarded tenders to 46 renewable energy independent power producers (IPPs) to supply clean power to the city as blackouts (load shedding) intensify in South Africa. The IPPs will supply power to the city at equal to, or less than Eskom’s Megaflex tariff for a period of 20 years.

The city has not disclosed the winning bidders but according to its 2020/21 annual report, the city will receive between 150 and 680 megawatts of renewable energy which it hopes will help reduce the occurrence of power blackouts in the city.

“The City is finalising the implementation of the City programme to purchase electricity from the appointed power producers,” the report reads.

Ekurhuleni is home to numerous large manufacturing, aviation, transport and logistics corporations, and also hosts the O. R. Tambo International Airport, one of Africa’s busiest airports. The intermittent power supply challenges have had a slowdown effect in South Africa’s economic recovery efforts.

The city is looking to improve security of energy supply through additional power procurement initiatives from private power generators, particularly renewable energy producers. The power from IPPs will produced from various renewable energy generation technologies including wind, solar, waste and biomass energy.

“The City of Ekurhuleni is currently sourcing 100% of its electrical power solely from Eskom and this power is generated from fossil fuels, which are harmful to the environment. CoE has in 2007 approved an Energy and Climate change strategy and one of the targets set was to diversify energy supply to include renewable and cleaner energy sources with a target of 10% by 2020,” said CoE in its Concept Paper.

In addition to procuring renewable energy from IPPs to resell to residents and businesses, Ekurhuleni is also running a programme of installing 10 000 solar PV lighting systems in informal settlements.