The Tshwane Municipality is prepared to fight Eskom if the power utility does not grant it permission to procure electricity from independent power producers.
The capital city announced on Monday that it would be offering 40-year leases to private businesses to operate the disused Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations.
If this plan is successful, the municipality will be purchasing electricity from an independent producer.
The municipality’s chief economist, Lardo Standor, said that current legislation does not allow municipalities to buy electricity from independent power producers to offset load shedding.
“Eskom does not allow baseload power to offset stages of load shedding but obviously that will form part of our negotiations with Nersa and our engagements with Eskom in the run-up to the private generation of power here.”
Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink said that the capital city would challenge any legislation that prevented its goal of energy independence.
“If we’re faced with a Kelvin situation, we will fight and as I mentioned, all of the assumptions of how we operate an electricity business, all of that is falling apart.”
In 2019, Eskom challenged the City of Johannesburg’s plans to offset its load shedding by increasing its purchase of electricity from the privately-owned Kelvin power station.
However, the municipality won in the end.
-EWN
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