Cape Town wants to set up its own independent power producer office to secure renewable energy, following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement during his Sona address that municipalities in good financial standing will be allowed to procure their own power from IPPs. However, the City says the turnaround could be 2-3 years.
Executive director for energy at the City of Cape Town, Kadri Nassiep says the City has engaged national treasury with a view to setting up its own independent power producer (IPP) office along the lines of the renewable energy independent power producer programme (REIPPP).
He says “we have also engaged CSIR to prepare our mini-IRP that will direct our call for proposals”. Electricity provision in the country is guided by the integrated resource plan (IRP) which sets out what electricity will be sourced and when. Government has used the IPP office, which falls under the department of mineral resources and energy, to procure renewable energy in earlier REIPPs. The IPP office has begun an exercise to source 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts of emergency supply on an urgent basis.
Cape Town’s intention to set up its own IPP office, which will implement its own IRP, would constitute a dramatic re-shaping of the energy landscape. Nassiep says “we still have to refine tariffs, but we are looking at it already”. Budgets need to be realigned, he says, but that’s not a huge issue. “So we are cautiously optimistic, but let’s see what [mineral resources and energy minister] Gwede Mantashe publishes in terms of schedule 2.”
Mantashe announced earlier in February at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town that the government would be gazetting a revised schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, which will enable self-generation and facilitate “distributed generation” by municipalities.
The City of Cape Town has fought a protracted battle with the minister and regulator Nersa over the right to source its own electricity. The dispute has its origins in 2015 when then Cape Town mayor (Patricia de Lille) asked the then energy minister (Tina Joemat-Pettersson) to allow the City to source renewable energy, but did not even get a reply. The case has been set down to be heard in the high court on 11-12 May. Given the constrained electricity supply, the City of Cape Town had argued for an earlier court date, but has not been able to secure this.
Asked if the court case will still go ahead, Nassiep said: “In my opinion yes. We still need clarification from the court regarding our rights. “For instance, the minister might opt to issue [a] once-off determination in favour of munis and then not again. Or he can opt to keep it later to a cap of 500 megawatts, which might limit us unfairly. So it’s still needed.”
Nassiep says that “unfortunately” there is a likely two- to three-year time horizon for Cape Town’s own sourced power to come on stream because of financial closure issues, environmental impact assessments, power purchase agreements as well as connection charges and ordering of connection and plant equipment. The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) has joined the Cape Town court action, the CER’s Nicole Loser saying that local government has a constitutional duty to provide clean and healthy electricity, “which does not pollute our air, water, soil, or damage our climate”.
Loser says the Sona remarks were “very vague” on the details of municipal procurement. “Also not clear is if there will be the needed legal reform to address the current uncertainty around municipal procurement of whether Mantashe will simply issue the determination requested by the City.”
Cape Town mayor Dan Plato cautiously welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcement. “However, urgent clarity is required from the national government on the legal and regulatory nuts and bolts of how this must happen. “We need urgent clarity from the government on the roles and responsibilities for municipalities and other stakeholders in terms of the new generation capacity regulations in the Electricity Regulation Act,” said Plato.
He says the City is doing a study to determine how best to overcome energy poverty, through various projects including installing solar kits, solar home systems, increasing free basic electricity and improving access to gas. “Improving access to affordable electricity is a key deliverable that we are investigating at the moment.”
Ramaphosa also announced that “a Section 34 ministerial determination will be issued shortly to give effect to the IRP 2019, enabling the development of additional grid capacity from renewable energy, natural gas, hydropower, battery storage and coal”. “We will initiate the procurement of emergency power from projects that can deliver electricity into the grid within three to 12 months from approval,” he said.
Nersa will continue to register small-scale distributed generation for own use of under one megawatt, for which no licence is required and will ensure that all applications by commercial and industrial users to produce electricity for their own use above one megawatt are processed within the prescribed 120 days, Ramaphosa said. “It should be noted that there is now no limit to installed capacity above one megawatt.”
He said that a bid window for round five of the renewable energy IPP will be opened and that the government will work with producers to accelerate the completion of bid window four projects. “We will negotiate supplementary power purchase agreements to acquire additional capacity from existing wind and solar plants.”
While the electricity generation shortfall the country faces was quantified at the release of the IRP in October at 2,000 megawatts, this has subsequently been revised in later official pronouncements to 3,000 and then 5,000 megawatts. A document issued after the January lekgotla of the ANC’s national executive committee put the shortfall at 5,000 to 7,000 megawatts.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: Matthew Henry [1], Arqm Ahmd [2].
A Look at South Africa’s New Coins
The South African Mint, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the South African Reserve Bank, aims to mark memorable events and anniversaries that capture the nation by striking these stories onto coins each year.
A new R2 coin will come into circulation – the product of a competition which ran in 2019 following the launch of the SA25 coin series commemorating “25 Years of SA’s Constitutional Democracy”.
The South African Mint invited members of the public to submit designs for the reverse of the new R2 coin, depicting a right from South Africa’s Bill of Rights.
The winning design has been selected and will enter circulation during the course of 2020.
Local inventions
Numismatists will be able to add another example of South African ingenuity to their collection with the launch of the sterling silver crown and tickey coins featuring the Retinal cryoprobe, a local invention that revolutionised cataract surgery.
South African doctor, pioneering inventor and biomedical engineer, Selig Percy Amoils, is credited for the invention of the cryoprobe, which is a pen-like instrument that is inserted into a cut in the eye to remove a cataract with no risk of destroying healthy adjacent tissue. This technology has even been used on former President Nelson Mandela.
The ‘South African Inventions’ theme was introduced on the crown and tickey coin series in 2016, to highlight globally relevant inventions and firsts by South Africans.
Last year’s coin featured Pratley Putty, the world’s first epoxy adhesive invented by South African engineer George Pratley. It was used by NASA aboard its Ranger moon-landing craft some 50 years back.
The R2 crown features the anatomy of an eye on the reverse, while the tickey shows a gloved hand holding the retinal cryoprobe when the 2.5c tickey is placed on top of the crown in the designated area, the surgical procedure is recreated.
Big five
2020 will also see the launch of two new Big 5 designs in 2020, featuring the Rhino and Leopard.
The ‘Big Five’ term originated when big game hunters visited the shores of Africa to shoot for trophies, and locals warned them about the five most dangerous animals in Africa: the elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo.
The Lion and the Elephant were featured on the previous coins.
Natura coins
Following the runaway success of the fine silver Natura coin in 2019, the 2020 series will repeat the coin exclusively in silver and feature the Coelophysis Rhodesiensis, a diminutive, bi-pedal carnivore which preyed on small animals and mammals which appeared around the same time.
The Coelophysids were highly successful primitive theropod dinosaurs that occurred worldwide between the late Triassic to early Jurassic period.
Coelophysis Rhodesiensis occurred in South Africa and Zimbabwe during the early part of the Jurassic period (approximately 201–199 million years ago). Fossil records found in Zimbabwe allude to their propensity to hunt in packs.
Kurgerrand
The design of the Krugerrand has remained unchanged over its 50 years of existence. The obverse features the bust of President Paul Kruger, while the reverse, originally designed and engraved by Coert Steynberg, depicts a prancing springbok, a well-known South African symbol.
The iconic Krugerrand in 2020 stars individually, as well as in the existing four and five fractional sets available.
It is also available in 1oz and 2oz both gold and silver and in bullion and proof quality
Flora
Featuring on the 2020 sterling-silver colour coin range are the flowers Protea repens (Sugarbush) and Serruria florida (Blushing Bride), and birds Coccopygia melanotis (Swee Waxbill) & Ploceus capensis (Cape Weaver).
The quartet of coins which seek to celebrate SA’s rich flora fauna are the subject of this year’s series and are found in the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve, The SA Mint said.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].
South Africa is Expanding its New e-Visa System
The Department of Home Affairs will expand its e-Visa system in the coming months, making it easier for tourists to enter the country thanks to the online capture of visa applications and biometric information.
In a parliamentary presentation on Tuesday (18 February), the department indicated that it has successfully piloted an e-visa in Kenya, with plans to extend the pilot to India, Nigeria and China over the course of this quarter.
After addressing a number of ‘teething issues’ it is expected to conclude the piloting stage with the aim of introducing the programme.
South Africa began trials on a new e-visa system in November 2019. Speaking to BusinessTech at the time, Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said that the pilot aims to test the resilience of the system, with the department already holding successful trials in a controlled environment.
“The pilot will be conducted with Kenya first at the OR Tambo and Lanseria airports,” he said. “At the end of the month, we will evaluate the project and look at which other countries to expand the e-visa system to.”
Qoza added that the system is quick and has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible.
He estimated that the entire application process would take around 20 minutes, provided the applicant has all of the necessary supporting documents ready for submission.
Should one of the required documents be missing, applicants can resume the process exactly where they left off at a later date, he said.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].
South African Home Affairs Makes Concessions for Chinese Nationals Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak
As a result of the coronavirus outbreak, the South African Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has made concessions for Chinese nationals.
This concession is only applicable to Chinese nationals, and the concession expires on 31 July 2020.
To contact the DHA, click here.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].
Cape Town Moves to Set Up Own Electricity Supply
Cape Town wants to set up its own independent power producer office to secure renewable energy, following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement during his Sona address that municipalities in good financial standing will be allowed to procure their own power from IPPs. However, the City says the turnaround could be 2-3 years.
Executive director for energy at the City of Cape Town, Kadri Nassiep says the City has engaged national treasury with a view to setting up its own independent power producer (IPP) office along the lines of the renewable energy independent power producer programme (REIPPP).
He says “we have also engaged CSIR to prepare our mini-IRP that will direct our call for proposals”. Electricity provision in the country is guided by the integrated resource plan (IRP) which sets out what electricity will be sourced and when. Government has used the IPP office, which falls under the department of mineral resources and energy, to procure renewable energy in earlier REIPPs. The IPP office has begun an exercise to source 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts of emergency supply on an urgent basis.
Cape Town’s intention to set up its own IPP office, which will implement its own IRP, would constitute a dramatic re-shaping of the energy landscape. Nassiep says “we still have to refine tariffs, but we are looking at it already”. Budgets need to be realigned, he says, but that’s not a huge issue. “So we are cautiously optimistic, but let’s see what [mineral resources and energy minister] Gwede Mantashe publishes in terms of schedule 2.”
Mantashe announced earlier in February at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town that the government would be gazetting a revised schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, which will enable self-generation and facilitate “distributed generation” by municipalities.
The City of Cape Town has fought a protracted battle with the minister and regulator Nersa over the right to source its own electricity. The dispute has its origins in 2015 when then Cape Town mayor (Patricia de Lille) asked the then energy minister (Tina Joemat-Pettersson) to allow the City to source renewable energy, but did not even get a reply. The case has been set down to be heard in the high court on 11-12 May. Given the constrained electricity supply, the City of Cape Town had argued for an earlier court date, but has not been able to secure this.
Asked if the court case will still go ahead, Nassiep said: “In my opinion yes. We still need clarification from the court regarding our rights. “For instance, the minister might opt to issue [a] once-off determination in favour of munis and then not again. Or he can opt to keep it later to a cap of 500 megawatts, which might limit us unfairly. So it’s still needed.”
Nassiep says that “unfortunately” there is a likely two- to three-year time horizon for Cape Town’s own sourced power to come on stream because of financial closure issues, environmental impact assessments, power purchase agreements as well as connection charges and ordering of connection and plant equipment. The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) has joined the Cape Town court action, the CER’s Nicole Loser saying that local government has a constitutional duty to provide clean and healthy electricity, “which does not pollute our air, water, soil, or damage our climate”.
Loser says the Sona remarks were “very vague” on the details of municipal procurement. “Also not clear is if there will be the needed legal reform to address the current uncertainty around municipal procurement of whether Mantashe will simply issue the determination requested by the City.”
Cape Town mayor Dan Plato cautiously welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcement. “However, urgent clarity is required from the national government on the legal and regulatory nuts and bolts of how this must happen. “We need urgent clarity from the government on the roles and responsibilities for municipalities and other stakeholders in terms of the new generation capacity regulations in the Electricity Regulation Act,” said Plato.
He says the City is doing a study to determine how best to overcome energy poverty, through various projects including installing solar kits, solar home systems, increasing free basic electricity and improving access to gas. “Improving access to affordable electricity is a key deliverable that we are investigating at the moment.”
Ramaphosa also announced that “a Section 34 ministerial determination will be issued shortly to give effect to the IRP 2019, enabling the development of additional grid capacity from renewable energy, natural gas, hydropower, battery storage and coal”. “We will initiate the procurement of emergency power from projects that can deliver electricity into the grid within three to 12 months from approval,” he said.
Nersa will continue to register small-scale distributed generation for own use of under one megawatt, for which no licence is required and will ensure that all applications by commercial and industrial users to produce electricity for their own use above one megawatt are processed within the prescribed 120 days, Ramaphosa said. “It should be noted that there is now no limit to installed capacity above one megawatt.”
He said that a bid window for round five of the renewable energy IPP will be opened and that the government will work with producers to accelerate the completion of bid window four projects. “We will negotiate supplementary power purchase agreements to acquire additional capacity from existing wind and solar plants.”
While the electricity generation shortfall the country faces was quantified at the release of the IRP in October at 2,000 megawatts, this has subsequently been revised in later official pronouncements to 3,000 and then 5,000 megawatts. A document issued after the January lekgotla of the ANC’s national executive committee put the shortfall at 5,000 to 7,000 megawatts.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: Matthew Henry [1], Arqm Ahmd [2].