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Johannesburg plans a two-stage reduction of Eskom power cuts by buying more private power, starting in October

Johannesburg plans a two-stage reduction of Eskom power cuts by buying more private power, starting in October
Ferial Haffajee
By Ferial Haffajee
20 Sep 2022
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MMC Michael Sun says if the city buys 500MW of independent power, it can reduce the Eskom stranglehold and limit power cuts by 50%.

In a city whipped hard by power cuts, the Johannesburg coalition government has promised to rapidly limit the stages of rolling blackouts by buying private power.

The MMC for environment and infrastructure services, Michael Sun, says that within weeks, Johannesburg will issue a proposal request (RFP) and wants to inject new power into the city grid by the end of the year. 

Sun says if the city buys 500MW of independent power, it can reduce the Eskom stranglehold and limit power cuts by 50%.

Depending on demand, this can mean that in the short to medium term, Johannesburg will be two stages below the Eskom cuts. Cape Town has, until recently, managed to limit national blackouts by one stage. A two-stage cut is significant.  



“Stage 4 in Johannesburg is probably a Stage 6 in other municipalities,” said Sun in an interview. “The production hours we have lost are unimaginable.”

Johannesburg is still responsible for about 15% of the national GDP, but that is coming down because of the impact of rolling blackouts on the city’s economy.

Rise in City Power outages


“City Power is experiencing a significant increase in outages across all its infrastructure. There might be a slight improvement from specific depots; however, the rate of the breakdowns is progressively worsening,” according to the utility’s latest annual report. Before the latest cuts, Johannesburg residents experienced regular multiday outages as the old grid creaked and thieves laid waste to 95km of cable.

There are now more cuts than power in Lawley, Ennerdale, Vlakfontein, Zakariyya Park, Lehae, Eldorado Park, Power Park and Lenasia. Eskom supplies Soweto, but it’s the same story, and there is support in the ANC (which is fighting to get the city out of the coalition government’s control) to incorporate it under City Power.  



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Sun says the city will buy from big and small producers as it does not want to create a new monopoly supplier. News24 reported that the city had extended its agreement with Kelvin Power Station, the private supplier, and the MMC said gas was also likely to play a vital role. Egoli Gas supplies parts of the city and is a relatively low-cost and reliable source of piped gas. Sun says there are plans for solar use, but that batteries must first be installed to store energy.

Johannesburg will also use ripple relay switches so the city can remotely cut off your geyser, pool pump and other high-energy soakers. It will replace City Power’s energy with solar panels, starting at its Reuven headquarters.  

Sun says Johannesburg has installed 2,000 LED street lights, but with 300,000 street lights in total, the number is negligible, and residents often complain that the entire fleet of street lights is on the blink. There are plans for Apollo high-mast LED lights across Johannesburg, said Sun.  

Johannesburg is being thumped hard by cable thieves who use the rolling blackout schedules to plan where they strike. At the weekend, a Roodepoort substation was taken out by cable thieves while another in Industria caught alight.  

Substation stress


Seven in 10 of the city’s substations must be manually switched on and off to comply with Eskom’s power cut demands, and the old infrastructure is wearing thin.

“When you switch on and off that way, it blows up. Technicians then have to look for where the damage is — the fuse box, the cable or the mini-substation. And they can’t get it fixed when load shedding sets in. You can’t fix anything if there is no electricity,” said Sun.

Johannesburg makes R21-billion annually in electricity service charges on bulk purchases — a significant chunk of its R77-billion annual budget.

“We need to put residents first,” Sun says, adding that the city will take a hit as it moves to cut dependence on Eskom. He says the city’s coffers will be boosted in the medium term by better revenues through more investment.  

The city is also talking to the National Treasury and Cabinet ministers to secure more investment in infrastructure. City Power needs R27-billion to upgrade its infrastructure. DM

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