Just Who Is Making Great Progress to Protect Residents From Eskom?

The following remarks by Helen Zille – DA Federal Council Chairperson, were delivered at a briefing at the Kraaifontein Wastewater Treatment Plant, powered by a solar energy farm, installed by the DA-run City of Cape Town:

The Democratic Alliance (DA) continues to strongly oppose Eskom’s requested tariff increase for 2025, because it could amount to an effective 40% increase in power prices for South Africans next year – an unaffordable and detrimental surge in the cost of living.

Such a marked increase would take food off the table of millions of homes, would leave millions having to choose between buying electricity or water and would raise the cost of doing business; killing jobs and stunting economic growth.

As the National Energy Regulator’s (NERSA) deadline to decide on Eskom’s latest proposed electricity tariffs hike approaches, the DA will be intensifying its fight against the hike.

The DA intends to oppose this hike with NERSA directly, at the public hearings to be held on the proposal, and though all political means available to us.

At the same time, where the DA governs, our governments are opposing this proposed tariff hike on behalf of their residents. DA Mayors in towns and cities have lodged their objections in writing to NERSA, and will continue to oppose the hike in every way they can.

The DA welcomes the actions of our mayors to stand up for their municipalities, and their residents, to oppose Eskom’s ludicrous request for an effective 40% increase in power prices.

The DA calls on all South Africans who oppose this tariff hike request from Eskom, to join us in this fight. Join the DA’s opposition, join our petition against the hike, join our political activity, protests, pickets and marches. And when the NERSA hearings kick off in 10 days attend your local public hearing and make your voice heard.

But opposing an annual tariff hike is just one part of the DA’s effort to make electricity more affordable, and to secure the supply of electricity to homes, which must go hand in hand with our DA governments diversifying their electricity supply to become less dependent on Eskom, and helping residents consume less electricity in their homes.

These interventions are core DA policy, and have been part of our offer to voters in our Election Manifestos – And these we are proud to report today are coming to fruition.

Across the Western Cape province, under its DA government, the Energy Resilience Programme is bringing 2000 MW of new energy into the Province’s grid, and already by midway through this year 743 MW had been secured and added.

Almost 10 years ago the process began in the Western Cape to get the regulatory environment in place to allow Municipalities to buy back electricity from Small Scale Embedded Generation – legalizing the sale of excess power produced on a small scale at homes and businesses. Today this has opened the door to dozens of local governments buying in excess electricity, with the positive spin-off that municipalities are able to pass on subsidised power to their poor homes.

At DA Local Government level, our Mayors, Councillors and their teams are delivering progressively on the DA promise to secure their cities and towns energy diversification.

Midvaal:

• The municipality is now formally proceeding with plans to procure power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and a council resolution is already on the table.
• Midvaal is in the procurement stage of a PPP project – to finance, design, manage, operate, maintain and expand the Electricity Distribution Network in the municipality.
• Midvaal in the process of developing feed-in tariffs that will allow Midvaal customers that have approved small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) systems to feed into the municipal grid excess power generated and be credited.
• Solar high mast lights in various municipal wards are reducing reliance on the Eskom grid for public lighting.

Cape Town:

• Intensifying efforts to secure alternative power sources, invest in green energy, and manage demand strategically.
• Once such a project is where we are today. The Kraaifontein solar system is part of Cape Town’s innovative small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) program. The program is expected to save R2.4 million in electricity costs in the first year alone, while contributing 1.5 GWh of clean energy annually.
• To shield the most vulnerable residents, Cape Town offers a Lifeline tariff that provides substantial financial relief for low-income households – including a 44% reduction in electricity tariffs
• Cape Town leads South Africa in providing free basic water and electricity, benefiting a significant portion of our residents, as confirmed by StatsSA’s 2024 Non-Financial Census data.

Drakenstein:

• On track to work with Independent Power Producers(IPPs) to increase local energy resilience.
• Addressing Eskom’s baseload challenges during peak periods, through supplementary electricity supply solutions, to reduce energy costs during these periods.
• Installing Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) at all six-intake substations to enhance reliability and support peak demand.

Overstrand:

• Small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) also being facilitated and encouraged, specifically in solar and wind.

In addition to these four DA Municipalities who joined our briefing today, other DA Municipalities are doing sterling work to deliver this DA promise too:

• In Kouga, the DA government is on track to launch a 20-megawatt solar (PV) plant, as well as the appropriate storage solution.
  And in Kouga they protect their poorest households from electricity price hikes – Each registered indigent household receives electricity fully subsidized to a maximum of 50 kWh per month.
• In Langeberg Small Scale Embedded Generation Agreements with private households, business, industry and the agricultural sector allow private solar installations to feed in the additional energy they generate, into the municipal grid.
• Saldanha Bay is out on tender to appoint an IPP that can take on the management of 100% of the grid in the entire Municipal area, to create an Electricity Generation Hub that will supply the whole municipality, and event to supply extra electricity to surrounding Municipalities.
• Cape Agulhas is on track to undertake its first Grid Study to identify all of the alternative energy it can bring on board – with the sole purpose of obtaining electricity at a cheaper rate and making the supply to its towns more reliable and feasible.
• Stellenbosch has just awarded a 20MW Independent Power Producers tender for a solar facility which will enable electricity to be purchased from the IPP at a lower cost than Eskom. Stellenbosch is also retrofitting Municipal buildings with either generators, Solar PV, battery storage or Inverters to lower cost, and protect the municipality from Eskom.
• Mossel Bay has launched Micro-Grid projects aimed at establishing municipal-owned electricity generating plants, to power key infrastructure, but when the batteries are fully charged excess generated energy will be supplied into the municipal grid, thus reducing the bulk purchases from Eskom.

Across our local governments the DA is making excellent progress to free residents from Eskom.

We will continue to push forward with this crucial project, to ensure cheaper and more reliable electricity for everyone where we govern.