“…as from Friday 21 April 2023. Rural Free State will no longer be allowed to lessen the negative effects of load-shedding when the sun is shining and, in turn, will have to dump unused solar energy whilst parts of Frankfort experience load-shedding.” – Media statement by Rural Free State
Starting today, residents in the small town of Frankfort in the Free State will be forced to sit in the dark while a nearby solar farm, run by a third party, dumps unused solar-generated electricity because Eskom and Mafube municipality wants to keep them locked in into Eskom’s load-shedding schedule.
This unfortunate turn of events came about after the Gauteng High Court did not consider the merits of the case, citing the absence of Mafube Local municipality, who did not join the court challenge, reflecting a turnabout and an apparent lack of interest by the administrator in the welfare of residents who would have benefitted from the resulting augmentation to the power supply.
The DA will shortly be engaging with the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Free State’s COGTA MEC asking for their assistance to compel Mafube local municipality to support the Nersa mediation process that is trying to resolve the issue. Mafube is the distribution licence holder and their support is important if the issue is to be resolved.
What is happening in Frankfort is simply abuse of Eskom’s monopoly – Eskom is interfering in a small embedded project that is not directly interfering with the utility’s bulk power supply to the municipality.
Instead of partnering with Rural Maintenance to protect Frankfort’s residents from the debilitating effects of Eskom’s debilitating load-shedding schedule, which has recently been ramped up to an indefinite stage 6, Mafube local municipality chose to sit on the sidelines and watch a major investment to end load-shedding go to waste.
The Frankfort case exposes the red tape that IPPs have to contend with, including Eskom gatekeeping before they can sell power to municipalities. With the current punishing schedule of stage 6 load-shedding, it is simply astounding that Eskom is making it difficult for IPPs to reduce the severity of power cuts.
Instead of supporting Frankfort’s efforts to mitigate load-shedding and lessen the load on the constrained national grid, we now have a situation where Eskom would rather protect its own monopoly than embrace additional generation capacity.