Those who save power will soon be paid for their efforts, as Cape Town seeks new power heroes.

The City of Cape Town has issued a new tender, which will see the appointment of third-party entities, who in turn will reward participating residential and small-scale commercial customers for saving power.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says these Cape Town ‘Power Heroes’ will be key in the City’s loadshedding protection efforts.

How it works

City asks for a reduction in usage to protect its customers  →  Third party aggregators call on the Power Heroes to switch off  →  Power Heroes help Team Cape Town

• A reduction of usage of 60MW is targeted.
• Third party Aggregators that have been appointed via tender, sign up Power Heroes on a voluntary basis, comprising residential and small-scale commercial customers.
• When usage needs to be cut, the Aggregators switch off agreed-to non-essential electrical equipment of the Power Heroes. It could be done remotely via installed smart devices.
• Aggregators reward the Power Heroes. Aggregators determine the incentives and manage them.
• The City rewards The Aggregators in terms of the tender conditions and agreements.

Small actions, big impact

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says these Power Heroes will help the City to protect customers from the higher stages of Eskom’s loadshedding in particular.

“Smaller energy consumers can make a big difference to keep the lights on for longer in Cape Town and to ensure that the Cape Town economy is enhanced and protected as much as possible. The Power Heroes will really be going the extra mile for Team Cape Town, but as Eskom has shown that load-shedding is here for the foreseeable future, we need to do whatever we can in Cape Town to keep our city moving forward.”

Managing demand

Hill-Lewis says this new initiative is part of the City’s demand response plan to mitigate loadshedding while they work on getting new sources on board to end loadshedding over time.

“The City already very successfully deploys the use of our Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme to protect City customers from up to two stages of load-shedding where possible. For example, between February and July 2022, the City protected its customers from 722 hours of Eskom load-shedding. In Cape Town, we have decided that we cannot sit around and wait for Eskom and the national government to do what needs to be done to end the load-shedding that is destroying our economy. I have written to the President explaining ten ways that the problem could be fixed with the help of municipalities such as Cape Town, but have not been met with any willingness in this regard. Whether or not the national government takes any meaningful action, Cape Town will continue to press ahead with a variety of innovative and aggressive actions to achieve energy security for our residents. I believe that in the coming years, Cape Town will be a beacon of hope for South Africa on energy, with bright lights that shine (and stay shining) for all to see.”

• With this tender, reducing demand will become a contractual requirement and bring more certainty to the energy space.
• Once the third-party entities or aggregators that will manage the Power Heroes have been appointed in terms of the tender processes, the aggregators will be made known to the public.
• The initiative is based on teamwork and collaboration.

Read more: City to protect customers from 2 stages of loadshedding

How to tender

• Tender documents may be collected during working hours between 08:30 to 15:00 until 1 November 2022.
• The physical address for the collection of tender documents: Tender Distribution Office, 2nd Floor (Concourse Level), Civic Centre, 12 Hertzog Boulevard, Cape Town.
• The closing time for receipt of tenders is 10:00 on 1 November 2022.

Tender submission details are as follows:

Tender Box 127 at the Tender and Quotation Box Office, 2nd Floor (Concourse Level), Civic Centre, 12 Hertzog Boulevard, Cape Town

Visit: www.capetown.gov.za/tenders