The Western Cape Government has taken on a big task of aiming to reduce the severity of loadshedding across the province for the new year.
The plan is to hopefully mitigate powercuts in 2023 through the installation and use of multiple solar panels to harness green energy, as well as making use of (already functioning) independent power producers throughout various areas in the province such as Saldanha Bay, George, Stellenbosch and the City of Cape Town.
The independent power producers will be used to "reduce [the] reliance on Eskom," and has already mitigated two levels of loadshedding, says Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde.
The province's task of finding ways to reduce the severity of the electricity crisis has been ongoing for some time now. Energy experts have reportedly stated that South Africa's electricity crisis is only going to worsen going forward, in comparison to last year, which will weigh heavy on the country's economy.
"If I think back to the one megawatt ceiling that was in place, where small embedded generation could be brought in, we worked very hard over the last few years; more than a 135 megawatts have come in. That's probably more than 3000 independent power producers that are producing their own power for their own needs, as well as putting into the grid system in the City of Cape Town," elaborated Winde.
According to Winde, the province has been putting a budget aside to enable its municipalities to make use of the solutions it has slowly been testing and rolling out.
Winde stated that overall and realistically, these solutions are not just quick fixes but can still be highly beneficial for companies and businesses, and can expand even further.
"At the moment the plan is the 200 megawatts in the City of Cape Town, around 30 megawatts at Municipal air level; how do we up that this year now, to much more than that? I think the biggest move will be how do we enable the private sector to get on board for their own energy needs, and how that can feed into the grid system," explained the Premier.
The hope is that those private investors can eventually enable municipalities and other citizens with the same energy solutions, and who are unable to invest on their own.
The festive season was particularly jarring for South Africans, as prolonged blackouts were experienced nationwide, but specifically for citizens in the province of Gauteng as well as for the City of Cape Town which is a notorious as a tourist destination.
