News24 reported recently that the MMC for environment and infrastructure services, Jack Sekwaila, said the city had secured 92 MW of power from the four IPPs via a short-term purchase agreement. Sekwaila said load shedding would be one stage lower in the city as a result of this additional source of power.

Sekwaila says the four IPPs will supply power from various sources, including waste-to-energy, gas-to-power, and photovoltaic (PV) solar generation. The gas-to-power IPPs will offer the city the flexibility to generate baseload power, he added.

Sekwaila said 16 bids were received and four were successful, with a total aggregated capacity of 92 MW. He added that City Power is ready to onboard the short-term purchase agreement to procure excess power from IPPs for a capacity of 1 MW and above; and that City Power was implementing several other initiatives to reduce the impact of load shedding.

These other initiatives include:

• The installation of the rooftop PV systems at its head office to pilot the rollout to at least 700 other sites across the city, including the Joburg market
• A panel of service providers has been procured to assist City Power in the rollout of alternative energy sources
• The solar high mast public lighting is illuminating streets across the city; and
• City Power is working on implementing its Nersa-approved feed-in tariff, where customers with PV solar systems can give feedback or import their excess power to the grid.

The MMC said City Power had also started the installation of rooftop water heating systems or geysers. The city has commenced with the rollout of 20 000 solar geysers.

The CEO of City Power, Tshifularo Mashava, said the utility had made tremendous inroads to cushion Johannesburg residents from the effects of ongoing load shedding.

According to Nicole van Dyk (DA) the city faces an alarming rate of load shedding, with a recent report revealing that, out of 365 days in the 2022/23 fiscal year, 317 days were marred by load shedding. The situation has led to 986 GWh of unserved energy, amounting to an estimated revenue loss of R2,5 billion for the full financial year.