City of Johannesburg to add 100 MW to its power supply
South Africa: Johannesburg: South African megacity Johannesburg is set to add 100 MW of electricity to its power supply.
Image for illustration purposes
South Africa: Johannesburg: South African megacity Johannesburg is set to add 100 MW of electricity to its power supply.
The Gauteng Premier, David Makhura, and the Johannesburg Mayor, Mpho Moerane, have signed a power purchase agreement with Kelvin Power Station to bring this into effect.
The two-year agreement is expected to increase the city’s electricity supply sent to the city’s power utility City Power, from 80 MW to 180 MW.
“What Johannesburg is doing is something we want to do in the whole province. Reliable power supply and reliable supply of clean water. Those two are fundamental basics without which you cannot do anything. What distinguishes us from significant progress is access to those two clean basic services, power and water,” said Makhura.
Makhura highlighted that a secure electricity supply is needed for the economy of the city to grow.
“Johannesburg has huge economic potential but you cannot have an economy and residents enjoying quality of life if there is no power supply. Intermittent power supply interruptions have destroyed businesses and undermined the position of the city as an economic entry of our province. It is extremely important that we get Kelvin to go to the 300 MW,” he said.
The Premier added that the province’s metropolitan municipalities need to “take over” electricity from Eskom.
“I know that the big worry is that the people will not pay but they must have prepaid electricity. People must pay for electricity as per their consumption. We cannot have something called a flat rate. People must pay as per consumption. But we must sort out the infrastructure. When the substation blows out, we cannot take two years to fix it,” he said.
Source: ESI Africa
#Johannesburg#Kelvin Power Station#power supply increase#South Africa