Municipalities in good financial position are close to being able to generate their own electricity.
This can only be possible after they settle their power bills with Eskom.
This comes after Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe gazetted amendments to Electricity Regulations on New Generation Capacity last week.
This new regulation will allow municipalities in good standing to create their own power generation projects.
City of Cape Town had been to the court concerning this issue.
The city’s energy and climate change executive director, Kadri Nassiep, said he his optimistic at this stage.
“The city is still studying the contents of the gazetted regulations and I think the mayor we’ll probably issue a statement in respect to our response. But less than that it’s the step in the right direction,” Nassiep said.
But Nassiep indicated that there were still some unanswered questions.
“Some of them relate to, for example, the need for a feasibility study. There is no indication at this stage on how long that process can take.”
“And then the big question for me is the notion of financial standing, what actually constitutes good financial standing for a municipality,” he said.
