Project
City Power Integrated Resources Plan 2023 to 2035
Project Inception: February 2024
City Power is a buyer and reseller of electricity from Eskom to its customers and has a Distribution network that operates in an area of 1,644 square kilometres and serves about 1.2 million residents. The network consists of 18,100 kilometres of cables, 268 substations, 18 000 load centres and over 400,000 customers. City Power is also one of the largest Power consumers and purchaser of Power from Eskom, supplying a demand of around 3500MW (2021/2022).
City Power is heavily dependent on Eskom supply. In recent years, from 2017 onwards, the Eskom supply has become unreliable and has consistently increased in cost far above inflation.
In the wake of this, in 2021 the management of City Power launched the energy sustainability project to analyse and recommend a strategy to reduce City Power’s over-dependence on Eskom and diversify its energy mix to the customers of the City of Johannesburg.
The Alternate Energy Mix (AEM) was launched, and industry participation was sought during the 2022 Energy Indaba conducted by the City of Johannesburg. Out of this indaba flowed the definition of the Sustainable Energy Strategy (SES). The strategy specifies a changing energy mix over 3 windows of time resulting in a reduced reliance on Eskom, increased profitability, and reduced carbon emissions.
City Power contracted PWDXperts to develop the implementation plan for the Sustainable Energy Strategy, referencing the deliverable as the Integrated Energy Resources Plan.
This project commenced in October 2023 and was completed in January 2024. PWDXperts executed the whole of this assignment for City Power, the power distribution subsidiary of the City of Johannesburg.
PWDXperts had to work within the limitations of City Power’s balance sheet and low gross margin, which prevents City Power from committing to large long term power purchase agreements in its energy mix implementation. Also, City Power is not able to commit sufficient operational costs to diversify the energy mix.
PWDXperts developed a novel approach to implement the energy mix, without encumbering the City Power balance sheet. This power solution for Industrial Customers was called the eGoli program, that will eliminate load shedding for participating large power users, bring the cost of energy down in the short and over the long term and can be rolled out within long term power purchase agreements with City Power. City Power executives adopted the solution and even received support from the provincial government.
PWDXperts designed the function of an energy trader to engage with already embedded generation systems across its network. This trader function reduces the cost of energy to customers of the City of Johannesburg. PWDXperts also provided a clear roadmap for repositioning the SCADA system into an Active Network Manager for dispatching energy trading transactions on its power grid.
Project Outcomes
In short summary, the City Power Integrated Energy Resources Plan was adopted by the board of City Power to improve the sustainability of its business.
The project resulted in the following deliverables:
- Customer Impact Analysis Report
- Energy Trader Functional Specification
- Energy Trader Technology Overview
- Energy Trader Profitability Model
- Energy Trader Implementation Plan
- Energy Arbitrage Program and Model
- SCADA Repositioning Report
- IERP Integrated Report
- IERP Executive Summary
The project was successfully completed, and all deliverables signed off by the assigned City Power executives. The project outcome was supported by the board of City Power and the IERP formally announced by the CEO of City Power.
City Power has a clear path of pragmatic action able steps to implement over the next 3 years, which enables City Power to expand its commitment over the 3 windows unto 2035.
MiPOWER
MiPower is a team of passionate South Africans dedicated to tackling the nation's energy challenges head-on.
