ESKOM Stage 4 load shedding devastating for Western Cape economy; Emergency services at the ready.
Responding to the latest announcement by Eskom that it will be implementing stage 4 load shedding from today until Friday, Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Panning expressed his dismay and frustration at the ongoing constraints on our country’s electricity supply.
“From a disaster management perspective, we have alerted all our essential services as well as regional disaster management centers. Our focus is to maintain and keep on providing essential services throughout a power disruption. We recommend that backup generators at these services be fueled and at the ready whilst we are in a Stage 4 situation,” Bredell said.
Bredell continued: “We urge members of the public not to panic because Eskom has important checks in place to protect the network. But please help by reducing your consumption during this period of increased pressure.”
David Maynier, Provincial Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities said: “The economic impact of Stage 4 load shedding is of huge concern to the Provincial Government and there is no doubt that the rolling blackouts is causing havoc on our businesses, restricting investment and slowing economic growth in the Western Cape.
In fact, it’s estimated that in 2020 load shedding cost South Africa’s economy R500 million per stage, per day and the Western Cape’s economy R75 million per stage, per day. And so, we are working hard to create “energy resilience” in the Western Cape.
We are doing this by working with municipalities and businesses across the province to invest in the growing renewable energy sector. We want a situation where all municipalities can guarantee a stable supply of electricity at competitive prices in the Western Cape. That is why, towards the end 2020, we launched our three-year Municipal Energy Resilience Project, or MER Project, aimed at enabling municipalities to generate, procure and sell their own power.
Specifically, the project aims to assist municipalities to take advantage of the new energy regulations, which includes the potential for municipalities to purchase energy directly from Independent Power Producers, or IPPs” Said Maynier.
Source: Government of South Africa