Renewable energy for South African communities

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South Africa's municipalities are increasingly leaving their previously passive role of purchasing electricity from the national electricity supplier Eskom and are themselves becoming active in promoting their own electricity generation from renewable energy sources. Municipalities such as Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) want to become more climate-friendly and independent of Eskom, whose tariffs will (have to) increase massively in the coming years. Nelson Mandela Bay has launched an ambitious support program for renewable energies (RE) and plans to use this to feed up to 250 MW of electricity from RE from private developers into the grid in the coming years. However, a major bottleneck for expansion is the city's extremely outdated distribution network infrastructure. The condition of the grid not only poses risks to the security of supply for the population, but also hinders the possibility of feeding variable RE electricity into the grid. The proposed FC project is intended to support Nelson Mandela Bay in modernizing the city's grid infrastructure with the aim of improving the supply situation and security and the framework conditions for the expansion of RE electricity generation. Using FZ funding of EUR 18 million, the city's Electricity Department will prepare and implement grid investments (Phase I). In addition, the city will prepare and pilot an innovative program to supply disadvantaged urban areas with renewable electricity from the subsidy. The city administration will be supported by an implementation consultant in planning and implementing the grid expansion measures and the innovative renewable energy concept. In parallel with the implementation of the measures, a training and further education program will be carried out - in coordination with the TZ - to support the Directorate E&E in improving maintenance and servicing, implementing investments and setting up a corporate unit for renewable energies.