Pravin Gordhan: 350% hike in private solar power generation affects municipal revenue
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said the amount of electricity generated by solar panels has risen by 350%.
Gordhan also said private small-scale embedded generation cost metros like Buffalo City, in the Eastern Cape, over R300 million in electricity sales.
He said while the move was welcomed, it posed a significant challenge for municipalities.
Gordhan was responding to a written parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance member of Parliament Ghaleb Cachalia, who asked the minister what the impact of private solar generation was on electricity sales to municipalities.
Gordhan said recently released data by Eskom suggests that from March 2022 until the first quarter of this year, the amount of electricity generated by small-scale embedded generation, in the form of solar panels, has risen by 350%.
The minister said the rise in the reliance on renewable energy is a “welcome development for the environment” but poses a significant challenge to municipalities.
He said municipalities derived most of their income from electricity sales.
Gordhan said figures from Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality reveal that private solar generation has cost the municipality R350 million in electricity sales.
The City of Cape Town, Gordhan said, is currently at the forefront of exploiting this situation for maximum public benefit.
He said the metro is implementing “feed-in tariffs”, which pay private owners of small-scale embedded generation for electricity redirected into the grid, which can then be sold to other consumers at a profit.
-EWN
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