CITY OF CAPE TOWN
16 MARCH 2016
CAPE TOWN THIS WEEK: A NEWSLETTER BY THE CITY’S EXECUTIVE
MAYOR, PATRICIA DE LILLE
City making progress on our energy efficiency journey
Note to editors: the following is an extract from a speech delivered by the
City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, at the Energy Efficiency Forum this
morning, 16 March 2016. Cape Town’s Energy Efficiency Forum has been
helping commercial buildings and operations with practical ‘know-how’
since it was launched in 2009 by the City, in partnership with Eskom and the
South African Property Owner’s Association. The forum is co-funded by Old
Mutual, and supported by several other organisations. Read more below:
It gives me great pleasure to address the Energy Efficiency Forum at a time
when I am really excited about all the opportunities available to us to
become more energy secure.
Energy efficiency is the cornerstone of the City of Cape Town’s Energy2040
goals and the foundation of our action plan targets for 2020.
These targets and plans are crucial for the sustainability of our city and to our
climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
We need to intensify these efforts now, as following Eskom or a business-asusual trajectory will result in a doubling of energy consumption and emissions
and a tenfold increase in energy costs to the Cape Town economy by 2040.
Such a future would make Cape Town extremely vulnerable to external
impacts and shocks and the increased emissions would further contribute to
human-induced climate change.
Our Energy2040 goals model a more resilient, lower carbon, resource-efficient
and equitable future for Cape Town.
Businesses and major property owners have a pivotal role to play in helping us
achieve our goal of an overall reduction of 37% in carbon emissions – 21% of
which can be achieved through energy efficiency alone.
The City has set ambitious targets and I am determined to push the
boundaries and learn from other leading cities how to implement effective
energy security programmes.
We have to do more with less.
Our 2040 energy modelling shows that a 16% reduction in energy consumed
per economic unit is absolutely possible (both in terms of transport fuels and
electricity).
So my call to the commercial sector is to work with us, work more efficiently,
and aim to use 16% less energy by 2040.
I want to encourage you not to go off the grid but to use photovoltaic (PV)
panels to become energy producers.
The commercial sector has already done very well in terms of energy
efficiency and I commend you all for your efforts so far.
You have helped to keep our electricity use below 2007 levels for many years
now, and helped make Cape Town the city with the lowest electricity use per
capita.
In the City of Cape Town, we are leading by example and reducing
electricity consumption by retrofitting the lights in our buildings, as well as our
traffic and street lights.
Energy efficiency retrofits have been conducted on 32 buildings.
All 1 500 traffic lights now have efficient LED bulbs and more than 25 000
street lights have been retrofitted.
These initiatives, conducted progressively over the past six financial years,
have saved over 70 000 Megawatt hours, which translates into savings of over
R100 million and almost 70 000 less tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Future projects will bring further savings too. The lighting retrofitting of the
Civic Centre is currently under way and is scheduled for completion in April.
Around 20 000 light fittings, most of them over 35 years old, are being
upgraded to LED technology, with occupancy sensors linked to timers and
daylight harvesting.
The payback period is less than three years, and the electricity demand
saving of 1,2 Megawatts will save an additional R6 million in the first year, and
more than R36 million over the next five years.
With regard to our organisational development plan, we will no longer just be
distributors of electricity, but we are now going to add electricity generation
to our mandate too.
We are driving an energy future which is cleaner, more localised and more
diversified.
We are also engaging with the National Government on building our own
renewable energy plants, purchasing directly from independent power
producers (IPPs), and bringing natural gas to the Western Cape.
The City of Cape Town is the only city in the country so far with a feed-in tariff
for small-scale embedded generation from rooftop solar photovoltaic
systems, which allows residents and businesses to feed excess electricity back
into the City’s grid.
My dream is to see all households and businesses in Cape Town generating
electricity from panels on their roofs. But this will require a paradigm shift in
the way we treat electricity distribution in the City of Cape Town.
As much I want to see all households and businesses generating electricity, I
would also like see the City’s electricity grid being utilised as an efficient
storage and distributor of that electricity.
I therefore implore you to work with the City in making this dream a reality
because that will ultimately lead to an efficient energy system for the city as
a whole in which the energy needs of poor households are also addressed.
The City has already signed small-scale embedded electricity generation
contracts with Black River Park Investments and 17 other major commercial
industrial customers who are able to feed electricity generated from PV
systems into the City’s grid, while the contracts for Pick ‘n Pay and Vodacom
are in the process of being finalised.
In addition, we also signed contracts with 43 residential customers who are
able to feed into the City’s grid in a legal and responsible manner.
I am pleased that this forum is focusing on the requirements for safe and legal
PV systems and will host a market place where more people can learn about
PV systems from our local service providers.
Another vital component of our energy security programme has been the
installation of more than 43 000 solar water heaters on roofs across Cape
Town.
These solar water heaters have so far added R774 million into the economy
and in this last year alone has saved almost 120 000 MWh of electricity,
resulting in savings of over R256 million to residents. They’ve also reduced
carbon emissions by over 123,000 tonnes. The goal is to achieve 116,000 SWHs
and heat pumps by 2020. (Note that a correction has been made and 2
sentences added to this paragraph)
The sector that accounts for the greatest overall use of energy, however, is
the transport sector.
We urgently need to see a modal shift from private to public transport, more
efficient vehicles on the road, and higher occupancy levels in private
vehicles.
Cape Town has started a process to procure our first fleet of electric buses
later this year.
If all goes according to plan, Cape Town will be the first municipality in the
country to benefit from the latest alternative fuel technology and one of the
first cities in Africa to use electric buses for public transport.
In addition to zero carbon emissions as a result of using solar-powered
charging stations for the buses, a green fleet holds numerous other
advantages.
Transport for Cape Town is exploring the most appropriate mechanism for the
procurement of solar technology to offset the energy required for the electric
bus fleet, thereby further reducing emissions.
We are also engaging with cities like Stockholm where they utilising sewage
to generate bio-gas for their bus fleet.
Similarly, in Cape Town, we are comprehensively looking at ways in which we
can use all of our waste streams in the city far more effectively as a resource.
In closing, while we may not be experiencing load-shedding at the moment,
we still face major national electricity supply constraints and if the economy
picks up again there is the very real problem of supply not being able to
meet demand.
We can only address these long-term challenges effectively and faster by
working together.
Time is against us and we are prepared to go it alone to save the Western
Cape if there are no quicker responses from the National Government about
our requests to procure power from IPPs.
However, through this forum, the City is committed to finding the best ways to
collaborate with business and organisations such as SANEDI, the GBCSA and
GreenCape to achieve a more sustainable and secure energy future.
Thank you to our forum partners for your collaborative efforts and for
promoting this forum and encouraging greater energy efficiency in
operations linked to your networks.
This forum is an excellent example of how we can make progress possible
together.
End
Issued by: Media Office, 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