The government recently announced the publishing of a Request for Information (RFI) for our Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) Project, calling on all potential private and public sector organisations, including Western Cape municipalities, to provide information on renewable energy projects that would develop into new generation capacity in the Western Cape.
This is an important step forward in the MER Project which was launched last year to support municipalities to take advantage of the new energy regulations to generate, procure and sell their own power so that we can become more energy secure in the Western Cape.
Information submitted through the RFI will enable the Department of Economic Development and Tourism to consider options and develop the strategic approach to assist municipalities in the Western Cape to develop and/or procure new electricity generation capacity from all types of renewable energy generation and supply systems and technologies, including self-generation, battery energy storage systems, as well as hybrid generation and storage solutions.
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The MER Project is just one of the many ways to build energy resilience and buffer businesses and households from the impact of load shedding in the Western Cape.
The announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 10th June 2021 that Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act will be amended to increase the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW is a welcome move that will boost our initiatives to build energy resilience in the Western Cape.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy is needed to finalise Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act to provide further clarity and certainty to the market in order to ensure they maintain momentum and move forward as quickly as possible.
The deadline for responses to the RFI is 18h00 on 12 July 2021. For more information visit https://www.westerncape.gov.za/110green/energy/mer-projects-rfi
