Cape Town calls on Power Heroes to help end load-shedding
30 January 2024
‘Overall, the Power Heroes programme will target 60MW in demand reduction, enough to protect against a full stage of load-shedding.
‘Customers who choose to participate can opt to have a smart device installed in their home or business free of charge by the City’s appointed service provider. This will enable the remote switching of non-essential loads like geysers, pool pumps, or non-essential appliances in residential and commercial buildings.
To reach the 60MW target, we need to sign up tens of thousands of commercial and residential customers.
‘The cumulative effect of thousands of installed devices will mean that, when Eskom requires load reduction, Power Heroes will be called on to support the effort and have their non-essential appliances remotely turned off as agreed.
‘This entire voluntary programme will be rolled out in phases, and is one of the most cost-effective ways to mitigate load-shedding.
‘With Team Cape Town at the helm, I am absolutely confident that we will achieve the target of a full stage of load-shedding protection.
‘I call on Capetonians to support this initiative, to sign up and ‘Be a Hero’. Let’s show South Africa and the world, once again, that there is great power in teamwork, and that Team Cape Town can rise to the challenge, just as we did during the drought crisis.
‘Overall, our short-term load-shedding mitigation plans up to 2026 aiming to protect customers by up to four stages of Eskom’s load-shedding. This will be achieved largely through a mix of the use of the Steenbras Hydro Plant (1 – 2 stages); 500MW of dispatchable energy (up to four stages from 06:00 – 22:00 daily where possible); and demand management programmes, such as Power Heroes and load curtailment,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
How it works
The programme is implemented and managed by a third-party aggregator/service provider who is responsible for recruiting customers, installing devices and enabling load reduction when required by the City.
The City has awarded the tender to the Ontec Karebo JV as the third-party aggregator who will implement the programme.
Participation is voluntary and subject to prequalification criteria. As there are a limited number of smart meter devices, we need to ensure that we get optimal load that can be reduced for customers that participate.
All City-supplied customers (not Eskom-customers) are invited to participate in the programme. If a customer wishes to participate in the programme and they meet the prequalification criteria, they will sign a contractual agreement with the Ontec Karebo JV, outlining the participation arrangements. The City will not be involved in this agreement.
The Ontec Karebo JV will install smart devices on non-essential appliances, agreed to by the customer. These are typically electricity-intensive items such as geysers and pool pumps.
When the City is required by Eskom to move to a higher stage of load-shedding, the required load reduction will be implemented from the City’s Network Control Centre.
The biggest incentive for customers to participate in the Power Heroes initiative is the ability of the City to eventually protect residents from the effects of one stage of load-shedding, once enough customers have signed up. Furthermore, customers will have better transparency of their energy use to enable energy savings.
Who and which areas?
The Power Heroes programme will be focused on residential and small commercial customers within City of Cape Town’s electricity supply area, not Eskom-customers. All low voltage (LV) customers with a maximum demand of less than 1MVA will be encouraged to participate in this important programme. The aggregator needs to reach around 25 000 – 50 000 customers in order for us to meet our target of 60MW in demand reduction.
For the installation of smart meter devices, customers will be selected based on their ability to contribute non-essential load to our Power Heroes Initiative. This will be rolled out to all qualifying customers that are currently supplied by the City of Cape Town. The sequence of the rollout areas will be communicated once finalised.
When can I be a Power Hero?
The City is in the process of concluding the contract with the service provider as all City approvals have been obtained to conclude this contract.
The programme will be rolled out in phases to give the Ontec Karebo JV time to sign up customers who volunteer to participate in the programmme and for the JV to procure the smart devices.
Power supply diversification initiatives snapshot:
Demand management programmes:
a) UNDER WAY: Large Power Users (LPUs) curtailment
b) NEWLY LAUNCHED: Power Heroes: a voluntary programme for households and small commercial customers that enables remote switching of power-hungry appliances such as geysers and pool pumps.
NEW: IPP 3 tender issued: The total capacities envisaged 300 MW of dispatchable/ reserve power capacity and 200 MW of self-dispatchable power capacity. The contract period is three years, and is subject to a Section 33 process and he closing date for tender submissions is 8 April 2024.
UNDER WAY: Embedded IPP renewable energy (200MW) – with the goal to diversify electricity suppliers for more cost-effective electricity
UNDER WAY: Dispatchable IPP Programme (up to 500MW) – a key load-shedding mitigation mechanism, with 10-year power contracts for dispatchable power plants
UNDER WAY: Wheeling (up to 350MW) – a City-enabled means of third parties selling electricity to each other using existing grid infrastructure
DONE: Private Small-Scale Embedded Generation (up to 100 MW) mechanism – Residential and commercial customers are enabled to generate electricity for their own use and be credited for excess generation
UNDER WAY: City-owned SSEG (up to 20MW) from the Atlantis plant (7MW) and solar PV at City facilities (13MW)
Issued by Lyndon Khan, Mayoral Media Officer, 30 January 2024
