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Est 2009 Tel : 011 023-7588 / 011 402 - 1977 Inner-City Gazette
Fax: 086 609 8601
Issue 7 - 2019
Email : info@inner-city-gazette.co.za
inner_gazette
21 - 28 February 2019
Website : www.inner-city-gazette.com
072 824 3014
Inner City Gazette
Distributed free to households, churches, schools, clinics, government departments, police stations, libraries and businesses in Bellevue • Berea • Bertrams • Braamfontein • City and Suburban • City West • Crown Gardens • Doornfontein • Fairview • Fordsburg • Hillbrow • Jeppestown • Jules • Johannesburg Inner City • Kensington • Lorentzville • Malvern • Marshallstown • New Doornfontein • Newtown • North Doornfontein • Park Meadows • Rosettenville • Selby • Troyeville • Turffontein • Village Main and Yeoville .
Municipalities to resort
to renewable energy
Eskom is seeking annual tariff increases for the next three years of 17.1%‚ 15.4% and 15.5%‚ respectively‚ as it struggles to keep the lights on and pay off a more than R419bn debt burden
Energy Minister Jeff Radebe
Johannesburg - Higher power prices and unreliable supply will push municipalities toward renewable energy‚ Energy Minister Jeff Radebe told delegates at the 2019 Africa Energy Indaba on Tuesday. He said municipalities are keen to generate their own power‚ although on a small scale. “As wholesale electricity tariffs rise‚ or as we fail to provide electricity for the residential sector‚ we can expect more rooftop photovoltaic (PV (solar)) systems‚ bio-gas‚ waste to energy‚ and wind turbines to be installed at municipal level‚” he said. Eskom is seeking annual tariff increases for the next three years of 17.1%‚ 15.4% and 15.5%‚ re-
spectively‚ as it struggles to keep the lights on and pay off a more than R419bn debt burden. But Eskom is also suffering the effects of its death spiral, where increasingly affordable alternative power technologies are encouraging consumers to defect from the national power grid. “We need to arrest the steady decline in electricity demand over the past few years‚ and the lower economic activity coupled with rising electricity tariffs‚ that has tended to put Eskom into an untenable situation‚ characterised by increasing debt and increasing tariffs‚“ Radebe said. Radebe said job creation is his department’s priority‚ considering SA’s unemployment rate of
27.2%‚ with half of that being young people. “Energy can play a catalytic role in improving economy growth‚“ he told delegates. Jobs have been a point of contention between various power generation technologies competing for market share in SA’s energy sector. Labour unions have decried increased uptake of renewable power because of the resultant job losses in the coal sector. Radebe said another top priority was to finalise the long-awaited Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) ‚ which would determine SA’s energy mix into the future. The draft document proposed a reduced reliance on coal-fired
power with wind and solar‚ supported by gas‚ seen as the preferred “least-cost option”. There have been calls from environmentalists for coal-fired power to be scrapped from the IRP altogether. Radebe‚ however‚ said coal still played a significant role in the economy‚ although he conceded SA should not be oblivious to global trends and needs to move towards cleaner energy. Radebe noted that the costs of renewable energy in SA had come down dramatically‚ but new technology was key to overcome challenges with renewable power such as wind and solar; mainly that it was intermittent and could not be stored.