The City of Cape Town says it is searching for further ways to reduce the impact of rolling blackouts on its citizens.
The City is using its Steenbras Hydro Pump Storage Scheme to generate spare capacity, after the country was plunged into Stage 5 and 6 power cuts.
The City’s Executive Director of Energy Kadri Nassiep says, “We have been quite fortunate. We have been able to use the Steenbras Hydro Pump Storage effectively. We are able to mitigate up to two stages of load shedding and that is particularly during summer months. That has really benefited the customers within Cape Town and we are looking at a number of other short-term measures to help the situation even more.”
The full interview with the City’s Executive Director Kadri Nassiep is below:
Earlier, Eskom said it has launched its power purchase programme to secure 1 000 megawatts in an attempt to reduce the rolling blackouts that is making the lives of ordinary South Africans difficult and causing damage to the economy.
Eskom launches power purchase programme to secure 1 000MW to bolster constrained generation capacity pic.twitter.com/sFrLnaSDJp
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) September 19, 2022
Eskom briefs the media on the current system challenges: