 | Drakenstein Municipality reinforces three-pronged Eskom Loadshedding Resilience Plan
16 March 2023 | Press Releases |
16 March 2023
The generation of energy is a National Government competency and responsibility. Local government’s core focus and funded mandate is to render municipal services such as water, sanitation, waste management, electricity reticulation, and roads and infrastructure.
Drakenstein Municipality takes its responsibility serious and will focus on delivering sustainable and excellent services. The Municipality has reinforced its Eskom Loadshedding Resilience Plan, resting on three pillars: 1) Sustainable service delivery; 2) Revenue protection; and 3) Alternative energy.
“We will not be a municipality that misleads its community with quick and grand promises of alternative energy solutions that will supposedly replace Eskom and get its municipal area off the grid,” said Alderman Conrad Poole, Executive Mayor of Drakenstein Municipality. “Reckless and irresponsible statements create expectations that no municipality can meet. It is not that easy, cheap, or quick to get off or semi off the grid.”
Drakenstein Municipality’s loadshedding resilience plan is based on a commitment to local government’s core business and mandate, and on a pledge to keep on working responsibly with public funds. The plan comprises of three pillars:
1. Sustainable service delivery
To safeguard municipal infrastructure and mitigate any possible service delivery disruptions caused by Eskom loadshedding, the Municipality has put into place comprehensive contingency measures.
To address traffic control challenges during loadshedding, Drakenstein Municipality is following an innovative approach: it has already equipped over half (54%) of its 48 primary signalised traffic intersections with Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems. These systems are installed in underground chambers to prevent vandalism and robberies. By the end of June this year, 47 of these traffic intersections will be upgraded with UPS systems. In addition, the Municipality’s point duty service officer corps has been bumped up to assist with regulating traffic flow.
“Over the past five years we have installed backup generators at our water and wastewater facilities - such as our water and sewer pumpstations, and wastewater treatment works - to ensure basic services keep running despite Eskom loadshedding,” says Alderman Poole.
The Municipality’s water reservoirs are designed to cater for at least 48 hours of storage capacity in the event of any breakdown in bulk supply, while all sewage pump stations’ sumps are designed to cater for at least four hours’ flow without electricity, before overflowing.
Electricity maintenance teams are constantly on standby to repair infrastructure that breaks down due to high stages of loadshedding. The Municipality and its dedicated Cable Theft Prevention Unit are also making strides in its fight against cable theft – an activity that soars during power outages. More and more culprits are being arrested and prosecuted for this crime in Drakenstein.
Finally, the Municipality has been installing backup generators at its main offices, service desks and facilities, such as the Paarl Civic Centre and other customer care centers, to ensure that it is open for business and ready to serve the public.
“Drakenstein Municipality further welcomes the R6 million relief aid we received from the Western Cape Government. Drakenstein will match this with R6 million, which indicates how serious we are about ensuring continuous uninterrupted service delivery. Our procurement process to buy emergency diesel generators to the value of R12 million is already in place,” says Alderman Poole.
2. Revenue protection
Municipalities, like any other business, need to balance their finances. If they don’t, this would lead to bankrupt municipalities incapable of delivering services.
Drakenstein Municipality refuses to go down this road and that is why it fiercely protects its revenue. Providing electricity supply is one form of revenue generation. The income generated from electricity supply goes directly back to essential maintenance of the electricity network infrastructure.
“Since the beginning of the year we are noticing a decrease in revenue generated from electricity supply due to loadshedding and consumers opting to go off the grid. This is very concerning for us,” says the Executive Mayor.
3. Alternative energy
To assist in alleviating the sting of Eskom loadshedding, the Municipality is investigating ways of generating or purchasing alternative energy. It has an open door to and is engaging with various Independent Power Producers (IPPs) (large-scale commercial investors specialising in generating alternative energy for sale). The Municipality is also weighing up the pros and cons of wheeling (IPPs using the municipal grid to distribute their power).
The Municipality is further investigating tariffs for Small-Scale Embedded Generation systems (SSEGs) (businesses or households that generate alternative energy for own use and wish to push their surplus power into the municipal grid). Setting the trend, Drakenstein Municipality has since 2015 been paying SSEGs that pushed power into the grid.
Drakenstein Municipality is also one of four Western Cape municipalities participating in the Provincial Government’s Municipal Energy Resilience Programme which aims to collaborate on various loadshedding mitigation projects.
Conclusion
“That being said, we believe the energy generation ball should be placed firmly back in the court of National Government. We cannot act as islands. Municipalities play a supporting role, ensuring that South Africans receive the municipal services they deserve. This will remain our focus,” concludes Alderman Poole.
[END]
Issued by: Communication and Marketing, Drakenstein Municipality
