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Jeremy Maggs: Capeton residents have until March 8 to apply for the first round of the city's Cash for Power program. The initiative will give residents the opportunity to sell excess rooftop solar power to the municipality for cash. Mayor Jordyn Hill-Lewis is also here now. First, how was the technical framework for this program developed in the first place?
Jordyn Hill-Lewis: Now, let's go back a year to when we rolled this out to enterprises. The purpose of opening it up to businesses in the first place was to allow them to test the system and develop reasonably simple administrative processes, billing processes, etc. Then it was always our intention to open it up to private homes and residents as well.
There was also the important issue of having to obtain exemptions from the Treasury if a competitive procurement process was followed. Of course, technically we get our power from individual homeowners and business owners, and by definition, that can't happen. We purchase from one of her companies through a competitive bidding process.
Anyway, we prepared all this, did all the work in the background, and ran a pilot with the company.
Hundreds of companies are currently running on this system and all are doing well. So now we are ready to launch the service for private homeowners.
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Jeremy Maggs: So, given that we are effectively casting a wider net, can we quantify the expected benefits of this program in terms of reducing or ending load shedding in Cape Town?
Jordyn Hill-Lewis: The problem we have is that most people currently use all of the electricity they generate to offload their personal loads at work and home. So the amount of surplus power they have to sell to us is actually very small. But now that all of these hurdles to investment are being removed as more people invest in solar power, or even decide to upgrade and expand their existing systems, we We hope that the power generation will be able to provide more power. What we have available is growth.
For us, the ideal scenario would be to get a lot of power at noon, when solar power is most abundant, and use that power to pump water at the Steenblas hydro storage project and use that water for peak hour It can be used for power generation. time of day.
Here's the technicality of how we use this power. Because, when electricity is sold to us, mainly at noon, the usage of the grid is quite low. I don't actually want to use it, but would like to find a way to save it. We use Steenbras for that purpose.
Jeremy Maggs: Also, what signs of ingestion have you had so far?
Jordyn Hill-Lewis: Many people have registered. I can't give you exact numbers, but I'm sure we have hundreds of businesses registered in the system, and the number is many times higher for private residences. I want to emphasize that this is only the first round. We know there are many people still waiting for cheaper meters, but we are committed to it and will deliver it.
We are very close to that goal. I don't want to jump into it, but maybe in the next month or so we'll be able to make the commitment for a much cheaper meter. That would encourage more people to buy meters. Once they make an investment, we run future rounds for them to sign up for.
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Jeremy Maggs: What kind of interest are you getting from other cities in this country?
Jordyn Hill-Lewis: We are seeing a lot of interest from Joburg and eThekwini in Durban. There is also interest from some small towns in the Western Cape, but both Joburg and Durban have sent teams here to see what we are doing.
So I expect they should follow suit soon. I don't know how long it will take to get everything in place. But there are no other big cities and I think maybe four or five small towns coming to see us.
Jeremy Maggs: You mentioned that the application process for the program is very easy?
Jordyn Hill-Lewis: Well, don't make it too easy. I think it's as simple as that, we really tried, but some of the real delays were me sending the team back and saying, no, we want it to be simpler, we want it to be simpler, we want to do more paperwork. I kept saying I wanted to get rid of that and make it as simple as possible. Possible.
So I think we've reached a point where it's pretty simple. If there is an easier way to do this, I would love to hear your ideas.
The only concern is why this can't be done with a simple click on a website or something like that. Because when we buy electricity, we're still in a procurement environment. So there is a lot of evidence and evidence that has to be submitted to the Auditor General and the National Treasury.
So there needs to be a reasonable documentary trail of who exactly the city is dealing with, even if it's just a private resident who probably sells less than a megawatt a year. Unfortunately, that's the case. Jeremy, it's pretty simple, but not as easy as I would like.
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Jeremy Maggs: Does this come with risks, and on the other hand, do we need to be concerned about honesty and secondly, the sustainability of our business?
Jordyn Hill-Lewis: I think the second one is more risky. Measuring honesty is very easy since obviously all electrical flow is measured. This is one thing he checked very carefully at the initial stage of business registration. We are fairly confident that the weighing system is working properly and that this is all accurate. To be honest, the sustainability of energy operations is a genuine national concern, as South Africa's municipal financing model relies heavily on electricity.
There is no way for any local government in the country to deny that that is true. Therefore, we need to remove ourselves from it because it is not sustainable into the future.
As more and more people go off-grid and democratize their electricity supply, this will impact the sustainability of energy companies and even local governments.
So our answer is, all you have to do is you can't stand on the shore and push the tide back, the tide is coming, you have to accept it. We need to find ways to adapt our energy use to that changing environment. One way to do that is to actually encourage people to sell their electricity. Because electricity is much more cost-effective than Eskom.
Remember, Eskom produces coal-fired power and sells it at or near R4.57 per kilowatt at peak times, which is very expensive. This means that renewable electricity is only a small part of the cost and in doing so can contribute to the total correction.
Jeremy Maggs: Thank you very much, Jordyn Hill-Lewis, Mayor of Cape Town.