Cape Town: The City commits to over R1.2 billion on energy security diversification. The Draft of 2026-27 Energy Budget over the next three years of R71.3 billion in total capital and operational expenditure points to the City’s commitment to enhance energy security, infrastructure investment, and improved affordability.
The City of Cape Town’s planned commitments include a R1.245 billion investment over the medium-term on energy security systems and Steenbras pumped storage power station upgrades.
Considering this, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Energy – Alderman Xanthea Limberg stated that this budget affirms the plans to secure Cape Town’s dynamic, decentralised energy future, as they lessen the reliance on Eskom and move toward cleaner and more sustainable energy sources.
Over the next three years, the City plans to invest R659 million in renewable energy procurement and a further R586 million in life-extension upgrades at the main plant of the Steenbras pumped hydro-electric power station. Totalling an outlay of R1,245 billion in energy security investments. These investments are reflective of this administration’s unwavering commitment to secure more affordable energy for Cape Town’s residents and businesses.
Alderman Xanthea Limberg said that they view streetlighting as a fundamental basic service that the City of Cape Town consistently delivers more reliably compared to other metros. Planned expenditure includes R165 million in LED streetlighting installations, enabling the City to retrofit additional lamps across its network of over 245,000 streetlights and maintain burn rates consistently around the 90% target.
The biggest threat to the aim of creating safer and brighter communities remain illegal connections and theft that impact infrastructure and leave the communities and motorists in the dark. They continued to roll out innovative interventions to tackle these criminal acts.
According to Limberg, the City continues to protect residents and businesses from excessive Eskom-driven tariff hikes. Residents will pay just 6.67% more on average for their electricity this financial year. This is 2.34% lower than the Nersa-approved 9.01% Eskom increase to municipalities. Of the tariff income for electricity, approximately 70% goes to buying bulk electricity from Eskom. Eskom’s input cost is the biggest driver of increases in the tariff.