The City of Cape Town (CoCT) has recently announced plans to construct a new solar power plant outside Somerset West, the Paardevlei ground-mounted solar PV and battery storage project, that will cost R1.2 billion and provide 60MW of renewable energy to Cape Town. This new solar power plant will have sufficient battery capacity to reduce load-shedding by one stage, making it a critical step towards ending load-shedding in the city.
In addition to this project, CoCT has set out a broader plan to end load-shedding as part of its 2023/2024 budget. The city aims to spend R2.3 billion to scale up its Eskom-less power supply over three years, eventually sparing residents from the first four stages of load-shedding. To achieve this, CoCT is seeking 500MW of dispatchable energy from private providers and plans to award contracts for 200MW of renewable energy from private power producers within the year.
The Paardevlei power plant is being constructed with the assistance of the C40 Cities Finance Facility (C40 CFF), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the government of the United Kingdom, and the French development agency (AFD). The project will be implemented by the German development agency GIZ and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. The C40 CFF will assist the project team in conducting a technical feasibility study, which will be completed by the end of 2023. The estimated date for the full commissioning of the plant is August 2026.
The construction of this new solar power plant is a significant move for the city of Cape Town towards becoming load-shedding free. According to city mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, this project represents another critical step in the metro's journey away from Eskom reliance and towards becoming load-shedding free. The initiative forms part of a broader plan to end load-shedding and to ensure a green and just energy transition.
Cape Town residents generally endure load-shedding at one or two lower stages than the rest of the country, at least for some parts of the day. For example, while Eskom was implementing stage 6 load-shedding nationally for all of Monday, 17 April 2023, CoCT reduced this to stage 5 between 06:00 and 16:00, and stage 4 from 16:00 until 20:00. The city can do this thanks to the 180MW Steenbras hydro pumped-storage power station in the Hottentots Holland mountains. This power station is operated directly by CoCT's electricity department and consists of four 45MW turbines.
During peak periods, water from the upper dam flows down to turn the turbines and generate energy. Over the period of lowest demand, typically between 23:00 and 07:00 the next day, power from the national grid is used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir. With this approach, CoCT implements lower levels of load-shedding during the day and for a portion of the evening peak period. According to its latest load-shedding schedules, the regular level of load-shedding applying to the rest of South Africa is implemented during the off-peak night-time hours.
