23 SEPTEMBER 2014
STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S EXECUTIVE MAYOR, PATRICIA DE LILLE
City concludes embedded electricity generation contract
with Black River Park Investments
Today the City of Cape Town signed the first small-scale embedded
electricity generation contract with Black River Park Investments, an office
block in Observatory.
We commend Black River Park for leading the way in the commercial real
estate sector by utilising large-scale solar power systems to generate
environmentally sustainable energy.
They will be producing some of the electricity to meet their own consumption
demands.
Under the terms of this contract, Black River Park will feed a limited amount of
extra electricity which they generate back into the City’s electricity grid and
they will receive an offset against their monthly electricity accounts.
They would do this over weekends for example when the office park’s
electrical load is reduced. The electricity which they save will be fed back
into the City’s grid.
It is envisaged that this will be the first of many small-scale embedded
generation (SSEG) installations to be connected to the City’s grid.
We are hopeful that the provision of such opportunities will help stimulate the
green economy by increasing demand for solar panels and other sources of
alternative energy. This will in turn help create jobs in this sector.
The Black River Park project is in line with the City’s commitment to creating a
sustainable city that addresses the challenges facing our environment.
It also maintains the City’s position of being at the forefront of green
initiatives.
The City of Cape Town has set itself a target of sourcing 10% of its electricity
from renewable energy resources by 2020 and the roll-out of the small-scale
embedded generation tariff supports this goal.
Cape Town, along with all cities throughout the world, has to contend with
the negative consequences of climate change.
South Africa’s electricity generation is notoriously environmentally unfriendly,
as it relies to a great extent on the burning of coal. For every 1 kilowatt hour
of grid electricity consumed, 1 kg of carbon dioxide is released into the
atmosphere.
Our over-reliance on fossil fuels for our energy needs cannot continue
unabated, and we as a City need to do everything possible to pursue
alternative, cleaner sources of energy.
The primary ways we are doing this include using electricity more efficiently
and using electricity generated from renewable sources such as the sun and
wind.
For more than a year, the City has been running a project to find a solution
which allows consumers to feed power back into the grid and to receive an
offset doing so.
This has been a complex process as numerous factors have had to be
addressed, including: the establishment of appropriate tariffs; identification of
suitable metering systems which can measure power flow in two directions;
and the implementation of automated billing systems which take into
account both the purchase and sale of electricity.
Black River Park’s solar project at the 74 000 m² office park is the largest
integrated photovoltaic plant in Africa.
Their panels cover an area of 11 000 m², which is just over two full-sized rugby
fields, and generate between 20 – 30% of the complex’s electricity
requirements.
The Black River Park’s PV installation has already saved around 1 300 tons of
coal through the use of renewable energy.
It has produced around 1 368 megawatt hours, which is equivalent to
keeping 157 Cape Town houses running for a year.
This innovative project underscores the value of using green energy and
taking advantage of the City’s programme to allow for offsets in exchange
for the feeding into the grid of excess electricity.
Consumers who wish to feed SSEG electricity into the municipal electricity
grid need to have a bi-directional advanced meter infrastructure credit
meter installed by the City at their own cost and take their electricity supply
at the appropriate SSEG tariff.
Guidelines and application requirements can be found on the City’s website.
Interested parties are encouraged to contact the City for further information.
Please send an e-mail to green.electricity@capetown.gov.za or
power@capetown.gov.za.
End
Issued by: Integrated Strategic Communication and Branding Department,
City of Cape Town
Media enquiries: Zara Nicholson, Spokesperson for the Executive Mayor –
Patricia de Lille, City of Cape Town, Tel: 021 400 4998 or Cell: 079 416 5996, Email: zara.nicholson@capetown.gov.za