STATS SA

TRACKING THE MUNICIPAL ROLLOUT OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES

Households and businesses are adopting alternative sources of energy as load shedding bites. What may not be well known is that many municipalities are in the game too, providing off-grid energy sources to the poorest households.

The Free Basic Alternative Energy (FBAE) policy instructs municipalities to supply alternative sources of energy to poor households that are not connected to the grid. The policy was introduced to aid predominantly rural municipalities that struggled to provide Free Basic Electricity (FBE) to a relatively high number of indigent households in unelectrified areas. The policy lists several alternatives, such as coal, liquefied petroleum gas, bio-ethanol gel (or fire gel) and paraffin.

Although not specifically listed, municipalities also provide solar home systems.

Stats SA tracks the municipal rollout of alternative sources of energy in its annual Non-financial

Fire gel is another off-grid energy alternative. In 2022, 7 municipalities supplied fire gel to 9 702 households in KwaZuluNatal and Eastern Cape (Figure 2). This is much lower than the 19 607 households that benefitted from the service in 2017.

The use of paraffin by South African households in general has declined over the years, according to census data from 1996 to 2022. In 1996, 21,6% of all households used paraffin as a source of energy for cooking, falling to 8,5% in 2011 and further to 2,7% in 2022.

Municipal support programmes have also scaled back in this regard. In 2022, 11 municipalities supplied paraffin to 22 421 households (Figure 3), lower than the 86 522 households in 2017.

Several municipalities provided other alternative sources of energy, such as coal, liquefied petroleum gas and candles. In the report, these sources are grouped into the category ‘other’ and include a total of 11 248 households: 10 910 in 5 Eastern Cape municipalities and 338 in 1 Northern Cape municipality.

In summary, of the three main alternative sources of energy measured, municipalities have increased their supply of solar systems to assist poorer households, while fire gel and paraffin have become less prominent. 

More articles of this nature, and reports that focus specifically on municipal data, can be found on the Statistics South Africa website: www.statssa.gov.za

Authors: Malibongwe Mhemhe, Celia Mamabolo and Kevin Parry