The Western Cape provincial government has launched its Municipal Energy Resilience Fund (MERF), which will make nearly R13-million available to qualifying municipalities for research and planning for renewable energy projects.

This should help mitigate load-shedding in the province, the provincial government states.

The launch of the fund marks the next step in Phase 1 of the Western Cape’s Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) Initiative.

The initiative aims to help municipalities take advantage of the new energy regulations, which may include municipalities buying energy directly from independent power producers.

The fund will do this by supporting the development of preparatory work such as the development of electricity master plans and cost of supply studies.

These will help municipalities assess aspects such as grid availability, infrastructure needs and costs so that they can develop thorough plans for financially sustainable renewable energy projects.

Applications for MERF opened on August 27.

The launch of the fund follows a successful request for information (RFI) for the MER Initiative which solicited information for more than 100 potential energy generation projects from 82 submissions from private sector developers and owners, and a further 15 submissions from Western Cape municipalities.

These RFI submissions are going through an assessment process to inform the MER Initiative’s pioneering projects roadmap. Although subject to final review, initial results are promising, the provincial government says.

From the 82 private project submissions, 62 representing a combined nominal generation capacity of more than 4 800 MW have been deemed to be potentially viable and relevant.

Of that, 12%, or 590 MW, of the projects appear capable of reaching commercial operation within 12 months, while 75%, or nearly 3 600 MW, of projects were likely to start commercial operation within two years of signing a power purchase agreement. 

Submissions included a range of individual generation technology projects ranging from below 1 MW to above 100 MW.

Of the renewable energy generation technologies proposed, solar photovoltaic is the largest generation technology group followed by onshore wind.

Respondents ranged from large, established project developers and owners to smaller emerging project developers.

The Western Cape government says several submissions were received from outside the province with some potential for the wheeling of electricity, but most projects are located in the Western Cape.

“The early results presented from the RFI support the fact that there are significant and relevant energy generation projects in the market for the Western Cape, and so we are pleased to announce the opening of the MERF, which takes us one step closer to increased energy resilience in the Western Cape,” says Western Cape Finance Minister David Maynier.