Performance information
on any energy / electricity challenges or issues( policy, legislation and / or operational issues) that are specific to metro energy and electricity utilities. The forum provided a mandate for SALGA’ s advocacy, support and lobbying role in the electricity industry, including engagement with relevant industry stakeholders.
The metro forum mandated SALGA to pursue a declaratory order on the constitutional powers of municipalities for electricity reticulation, or to declare an IGR dispute with Eskom. Failing resolution, it was agreed that the matter be taken to the Constitutional Court.
Energy efficiency and renewable energy: a sector facing rapid structural changes
Due to the rapid transformation of the energy sector, local electricity utilities are under pressure to change the way they operate and adapt their business models to the new developments, taking into account climate change imperatives and the increased affordability of new technologies, which, with a concomitant increase in electricity tariffs, result in radical behavioural changes of customers. Local utilities are compelled to adapt to this changing environment.
To assist municipalities, SALGA, with key partners such as GIZ and SEA, assisted municipalities through a range of measures.
Lobbying: roles for municipalities in energy and electricity
After several years of active lobbying from SALGA and municipalities, the Department of Energy published a draft amendment to the Electricity Regulation Act in December 2016. The purpose of the notice was to exempt various categories of electricity generation facilities from the requirement to hold a generation license. It is suggested that these activities rather be registered with NERSA. This includes small scale embedded generation below 1 megawatt, as was requested by municipalities in the 2014 position. Comments on the draft notice were submitted by SALGA.
Capacity building on energy
A comprehensive programme to support municipal electricity distributors with the integration of renewable energy generation on their distribution grid was implemented for municipalities. This includes:
• Technical integration training courses, in cooperation with the Department of Energy, the Danish-Energy Programme, the South African German Energy Programme of GIZ and the North West University. About 30 municipalities benefited from technical training on the grid integration of renewable energy;
• A resource pack with templates documents to assist municipalities in developing administrative processes and technical requirements. This was driven by SALGA and the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities, and supported by SEA, GreenCape and GIZ; and
• A financial tool to assist municipalities in calculating how municipal revenue is impacted by rooftop photo voltaic and assist municipalities in designing small scale embedded generation tariffs that balance municipal revenue against customer expectations for solar photo voltanic investment returns.
Danish-Energy Programme and the grid integration training
The governments of South Africa and Denmark are running a long-term cooperation supporting the low carbon transition of the South African electricity sector specifically targeting renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The cooperation includes giving technical assistance to municipal power distribution utilities that are experiencing an increased level of variable distributed generation and renewable power plants. Through a cooperation and partnership between SALGA, DoE and the Danish government, 27 employees were selected to be trained on this programme from the nine selected municipalities.
A commencement workshop was held on 8 November 2016, in which the consultants, the Department of Energy, SALGA, the Danish Energy Agency, the Embassy of Denmark, the municipalities and Eskom participated in paving the way for the programme.
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