Cape Town businesses and households have already earned over R25.8 million under the City’s Cash for Power programme since the start of the 2022/23 financial year.
This after the city became the first metro to buy excess solar PV power from small-scale generators in exchange for municipal bill credits and cash.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said key policy changes have enabled power sellers to earn credits against their total municipal bill, and to go beyond that to receive cash for power fed back into the grid.
Previously, sellers could only be credited against their electricity bill up to a zero balance.
As at 1 February 2024, there are currently 1,461 sellers benefitting from Cape Town’s Cash for Power scheme as part of the City’s broader plans to end load-shedding over time.
Of these sellers, 869 are residential and 592 are commercial/industrial.
"The city will buy as much solar power as households and businesses can sell to us under the Cash for Power programme, with 25 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) already bought as of 1 February this year," said Hill-Lewis.
"In the 2022/2023 financial year, we paid more than R10.5 million to Capetonians for their power, and in the current financial year we’ve already paid over R8.8 million. That’s a total of R19.4 million just on the feed-in tariff alone, plus a further R6.4 million when including the 25c per kWh incentive we’ve added to encourage participation."
Municipal bills are credited automatically, with the option to apply to earn cash beyond a zero balance.
Businesses have been able to earn cash for power since June 2023, with a first applications window open until 8 March for residents to now also earn cash.
‘Cash for Power payments are now being offered to existing residential customers, with the first phase of applications now open until 8 March.
Customers wishing to only offset their electricity and rates accounts, do not need to apply and will automatically be compensated on authorisation of their grid-tied SSEG system with feed-in.
Overall, Cape Town is planning to add up to one gigawatt of independent power supply to end load-shedding in the city over time, with the first 650MW of this within five years, including enough to protect against four Eskom load-shedding stages by 2026.
Short-term load-shedding mitigation up to 2026 will be achieved largely through a mix of 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 Large Power Users (LPUs) curtailment.
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