The DA in the Western Cape notes and welcomes the progress made in the development of the Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) Project. In response to our parliamentary questions (here and here), it has been revealed that the Department of Economic Development and Tourism is in the process of drafting a Memorandum of Understanding between the provincial government and each candidate municipality, as well as the City of Cape Town, and has further appointed experts in order to support candidate municipalities in our shared goal of delivering energy security to residents.
The MER Project is a provincial intervention which aims to support local governments in the Western Cape to buy, sell, and produce their own electricity. It remains our key to becoming the first province to beat load shedding.
MPP Deidré Baartman says: “A secure, stable supply of energy fuels jobs, dignity, and safety for residents, and that is why the MER project is a gamechanger for the Western Cape in achieving our crucial goal of growing the province’s local economies. The Department of Economic Development and Tourism has applied a rigorous and transparent criteria to ensure that the municipalities which are set to receive support will have the ability to take advantage of this programme.
Municipalities were selected based on their overall financial standing, management and financial skills, their energy and by-law policies already in place, current energy projects, as well as the technical skills and capacity of the municipality.
The first phase of the Municipal Readiness Evaluation Tool (MRET) assessed the electricity sales and electricity demand of the selected municipalities in order to determine whether the municipalities have the demand to support large infrastructure projects and considered the impact of energy projects on the municipalities’ balance sheets. The second phase of the MRET assessed the required basic technical capacity as measured by the presence of an ECSA (Engineering Council of South Africa) registered professional electrical engineer at the municipality.
More than R48 million has been allocated to this project for the 2021/22 financial year and the department has wasted no time in capacitating itself in order to get the project off the ground. Fourteen project development consultants and four strategic advisory experts have been contracted until the end of June 2021 and March 2023, respectively, to assist municipalities. These project development consultants will assist municipalities in developing business cases which will include exploring multiple renewable energy technologies and the infrastructure needs of the municipality, amongst other strategic energy decisions. Strategic advisors will further provide support in identifying future projects as well as support municipalities in developing necessary technical skills.
The energy environment is a challenging and deeply technical space, and the provincial department is working to support these six municipalities as well as the City of Cape Town with every benefit in order to bring energy security to the Western Cape.”
