The Western Cape Government recently launched its Energy Security Game Changer in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Energy security remains a concern for South Africa as Eskom faces major infrastructure challenges for the foreseeable future.

Through the Energy Security Game Changer, the province aims to reduce its demand from the national grid by 10% over the next three years.

This will happen through diversifying the energy mix and promoting energy efficiency measures, while addressing the impacts on municipal revenues.

This is a joint Game Changer with the City of Cape Town and a number of other local municipalities including Stellenbosch, George, Saldanha, Mossel Bay and Drakenstein.

The key areas of focus include: Energy Efficiency, Rooftop Solar PV, the Importation of Liquefied Natural Gas and Load Management.

Partnering for power savings

On Saturday, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille emphasised the need to partner with both business and local government.

Premier Zille outlined the crucial role business and citizens need to play:

“We are encouraging all businesses to invest in grid-tied Rooftop Solar PV. One of the game changer targets is to add a further 120MW over the next three years in the province from Rooftop solar PV.

“Rooftop PV is a clean and green alternative source of energy and by feeding into the grid, businesses will be producing energy for others and will be contributing to the current national energy challenges we face,” Premier Zille said.

“In the current economic climate, it is critical for us to find ways of supporting the growth of the energy industry in the Western Cape as estimates indicate that the energy efficiency market alone could grow to R1.3 billion by 2019 with approximately 1000 job opportunities being created”, said Premier Zille.

The Western Cape Government will be running a campaign, called “Take Charge, Switch and Save”, as part of its game changer, which will focus on educating and informing businesses and citizens on the steps they can take to save electricity throughout the year, which will save them money at the same time.