Tshwane outlines plans to ditch Eskom and generate, procure 1000MW

Tshwane currently consumes an estimated 2,600 megawatts.

Brink briefed the media at the decommissioned Rooiwal power station near Hammanskraal on Monday, where he outlined plans for the metro’s electricity master plan.  

This includes leasing the Rooiwal and Pretoria West stations to private operators. 

“These are assets that have fallen into disuse. A lot of the infrastructure still stands, but there’s no real power being generated here, and that’s been the case since about 2013.  

“This facility can produce a small amount of electricity. The problem is it is not enough.” 

This comes as the city council approved public participation for the proposed 40-year lease to refurbish and manage both the Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations last week.

Both plants were placed on a long-term care and maintenance plan over a decade ago and cost the city an estimated 300 million.

According to Brink, Tshwane made a loss in excess of R2 billion in electricity revenue in the previous financial year.  

Tshwane’s head of sustainability Sello Mphage said should the public participation and council process run smoothly, they were looking at June 2024 to start speaking contracts with potential lessees.   

Meanwhile, Brink said the city’s energy task team was looking at ways to improve the energy availability in Tshwane and is talking to the City of Cape Town as the only municipality in the country that was able to ease the burden of load shedding on residents.   

“What we want to see is significant generation or procurement independent of Eskom in the next three years. We know it's going to require intensive capital investment and regulatory approval on a number of fronts, but unless we set out an ambitious timeline, we are just going to continue to plod along like we are now,” Brink said.   

The regulatory approval he referred to involves Eskom and the energy regulator (Nersa) giving the green light to offset baseload power to ease stages of load shedding.  

“This [Rooiwal] provides us baseload power, and it’s not dispatchable as seen under the Eskom and Nersa rules of dispensation currently. The lease here is essentially for power generation and not for anything else on the property but to generate electricity.  

“So, the lease will go with a power purchase agreement,” explained chief economist and member of the Tshwane energy task team Leardo Stander.

Tshwane plans to hold an energy Indaba where the plans for the two power stations will be discussed.