Lighting up South African lives

Economic development depends heavily on functional electrical infrastructure. Alongside the demands of growing populations and the need to improve energy-use efficiencies, South African municipalities additionally need to balance maintenance requirements.

LESEDI

Lesedi Local Municipality’s electricity supply network consists of medium-voltage (MV) and low-tension (LT) overhead and underground electrical networks, with the MV overhead network being approximately 82 km in length and the MV underground network around 100 km long. The LT overhead network is approximately 200 km long, while the LT underground network is some 82 km in length. The municipality’s network has six feeding points from Eskom. The voltage of the vast majority of the electrical network is 11 kV, except for KwaZenzele and Impumelelo, which run at 22 kV. Lesedi has 90 MVA in capacity, of which approximately 50% is classified as spare capacity. Like municipalities across the country, Lesedi is implementing various measures to reduce electric consumption within its municipal area.

Energy-saving programme

Lesedi Local Municipality has developed an energy-saving programme in line with national government’s target of saving 10% of electrical usage by municipalities. It has implemented various measures to reduce consumption.

Lesedi has initiated ripple control over some 4 000 streetlights, which sees these lamps switching on at 19:00 and off at 05:00, which ensures areas are lit when needed but saves significantly on energy usage – in this case, to the tune of around 60 000 kWh per month. Geysers are also controlled through the same load management practice, ensuring they are not needlessly drawing power. Similarly, Lesedi’s municipal offices’ air conditioners are switched off using timer switches, while the municipality has also ensured the installation of light sensors, which signal the lights to turn on when someone enters an office and then turn off after a certain period when no foot traffic is detected. The lights of the municipal building are also controlled by timer switches. Communication about saving electricity is vital to the meaningful wider adoption of responsible practices, so the municipality uses its consumers’ accounts and the local newspaper to educate its residents about various ways of saving electricity.

In terms of service delivery, the installation of free solar geysers is currently pursued in Lesedi to alleviate poverty and to reduce the usage of electricity in the area, while the council also plans to install LED streetlights around the municipal area, as and when

the funds are available from Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Lesedi aims to change out the fittings of around 4 000 streetlights, to replace the current 125 W lamps with significantly less resource-hungry 59 W lamps. This endeavour is set to cost the municipality R5 704 000, after having already paid Eskom around R27 million. The total project cost amounts to some R35 million and it should be completed within a twoyear timeframe.

EMFULENI

Emfuleni Local Municipality’s Electricity Department’s strategic objective is to ensure the rendering of quality, accessible, sustainable and reliable municipal services in the area. The department’s vision is to have an uninterruptable electricity supply to customers and the continuous working of public lights, in order to improve safety and the quality of life for the municipal area’s residents. The municipality is licensed to provide electricity mainly in the Vanderbijlpark, Bophelong, Boipatong, Ironsyde, Eatonsyde, Roshnee, Vaaloewer, Sebokeng Hostel, Rustter-Vaal and Vereeniging areas, while Eskom has been licensed to provide electricity in the remaining areas.

There is 98% electricity coverage to date in the areas falling within the jurisdiction of the municipality. Free basic electricity of 50 kWh/month is provided to registered indigent households.

Approximately 78% of electricity is sold to industrial and commercial customers; the remaining 22% is sold to domestic and agricultural customers and for the municipality’s own use. Emfuleni Local Municipality aims to secure its revenue through electricity sales.

Energy efficiency and green initiatives

The municipality adheres to the international drive for energy efficiency. As such, it utilises electrical equipment and infrastructure that are of the highest possible level of efficiency. This includes low-loss transformers and the optimisation of cable and overhead line systems to keep ‘losses’ at a bare minimum.

Further use is made of more energyefficient lighting sources for public lighting such as streetlights and traffic signals. Around 95% of the area’s streetlights have been replaced with more energy-efficient lighting. Furthermore, with the change in technology, the municipality is currently piloting LED lights as an initiative to save more energy. Emfuleni also encourages the developers of new areas to make use of energy-efficient building methods, as well as solar-powered systems.

Illegal connections

In dealing with illegal connections, the municipality has installed special locking mechanisms in most of the meter boxes in the area. The aim is to reduce the chances of consumers connecting themselves illegally on to the reticulation system. This also keeps the meter boxes locked at all times for the safety of the households situated near them. The municipality has embarked on a drive to install robust doors in all its substations in order to curb theft and vandalism.

The process of getting metered supply across all areas within the municipality is another important aspect in monitoring electrical consumption. A process of auditing and installing metered supply for all residential, commercial and industrial customers is under way.

Achievements

The municipality took several steps forward in 2018/19 in terms of its electrical infrastructure, including the installation of large power user (LPU) meters. A total of 741 of these LPUs have been moved from manual meter reading to using online meter reading. The online system is live and customers can see and plan their consumption day by day. The new system has decreased queuing times and it has eliminated human

errors during the billing process. It has furthermore contributed to revenue collection to an approximate amount of R15 000 000 per month.

The aforementioned 95% of replaced streetlights, along with the replacement of 780 lamps with LED light fittings, has already led to a saving of 60% of the streetlight energy consumption compared to the previous year.

MIDVAAL

The urban parts of the Midvaal municipal area are provided with electricity by the local municipality and include: Meyerton, Ironsyde Agricultural Holdings, Homestead Apple Orchards, Blue Saddle Ranches, Blignautsrus, De Deur, Golfview, Hartzenbergfontein, Henley-on-Klip, Highbury, Klipriver, and parts of Walkerville.

In the rest of the Midvaal supply area, where Eskom is the service provider, most formal households are electrified. None of the informal areas, however, are provided with electricity.

Challenges

There is a backlog of approximately 5 598 households (18% of the households) without access to electricity. Census 2011 data indicated that approximately 79% of households in Midvaal Local Municipality utilise electricity as their main source for lighting, while 15% utilise candles, and 4% use paraffin.

It is considered that mostly farm labourers and residents of informal settlements are those who do not have electricity, especially in the Mamello and Sicelo areas. These areas will only be reticulated once they are formalised, in line with the Integrated Development Plan.

Priority plans

Electricity provision to schools, clinics and other community facilities should also be

prioritised. A number of new substations have been proposed along route R59, and the Meyerton substation will be upgraded to provide electricity to new developments in the short to medium term.

To date, the 88 kV bulk electricity connection line for the future electrification of informal areas and other surrounding areas has been completed at a total cost of R28 million, which was funded by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and Midvaal Local Municipality, respectively.

This is part of an extensive master plan to ensure that new developments along routes R59 and R82 in the Midvaal area can be supplied with electricity as and when required.

A number of significant projects were implemented during the 2018/19 financial year, including the Kookfontein/Sicelo Substation Construction (with a project value of R8 million), Electricity Reticulation to Savanna City (with a project value of R6.45 million), Risiville Network Upgrade (with a project value of R2 000 000), and the Meyerton Street Lights Project (costing R500 000).

The planning phases for the construction of the substation and switchgear have been completed, at a cost of R17 000 000 in the 2019/20 financial year. Midvaal is providing funding on each year’s capital budget for the Sicelo housing development’s connections and the walk-up units’ electricity connections. The connections to the fully subsidised Savanna City houses commenced, with funding of R6 453 000 from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy. The housing development in Meyerton and Riversdale is continuously requiring electrical connections, so there is a key balance that must be achieved in addressing both the existing electricity provision backlog as well as ensuring new developments’ connection and metering needs are met.