https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

City of Cape Town connects more backyarders to the power grid

26th September 2016

By: African News Agency

  

Font size: - +

The City of Cape Town’s electricity services department is pumping a further R50-million into its backyarder electrification project in 2016/17, the city said on Sunday.

A total of R229.5-million had been spent on this project from inception up until this financial year, mayoral committee member for utility services Ernest Sonnenberg said in a statement.

The backyarder project started in Factreton and Hanover Park following a council resolution in 2011 to allow the roll-out of services to backyard residents on city property. These services included access to water, sanitation, waste collection, and electricity, and were rolled-out to areas identified by the human settlements directorate in consultation with residents.

“As far as we are aware, the City of Cape Town is the only metro in the country that has a programme to extend services to backyard dwellers living on council-owned properties,” Sonnenberg said.

“We have done this in response to the steep growth in the number of backyard dwellers over the past decade, but also taking into account that they are some of the most vulnerable groupings in our city.”

The electrification project provided electricity connections directly to backyarders by installing electricity service connections directly to their dwellings, and included the replacement and/or upgrading of backbone electricity distribution infrastructure.

The infrastructure was designed in a manner that made it capable of eventually serving backyard dwellings on private property too, as well as forecasted growth in other areas to ensure effective planning and spend, he said.

The most obvious benefit of the electrification project was that it eliminated the reliance of backyarders on the main dwelling for access to electricity, and the potential exploitation and unsafe connections that came with such an arrangement.

“It’s very difficult to determine who pays what when you have a situation where tenants share the electricity supply with their landlord. If not managed properly, it can lead to people being ripped off, but also create unnecessary tension between parties. A single electricity connection from the main dwelling also makes backyard tenants wholly dependent on the landlord, with the result that they could be left in the dark if no one is home and the electricity runs out,” Sonnenberg said.

Other benefits of the electrification project included reducing the risk of fires through the installation of safe and legal connections, improved quality of life for beneficiaries, and the restoration of human dignity.

A key challenge, however, was the cost factor in instances where the entire existing electricity network had to be replaced because it could not cope with the required load increase.

The budget allocation for the current financial year would allow the electricity services department to continue with existing projects in Parkwood and Bonteheuwel, the provision of infill electrification in Hanover Park, and the start of a new project in Kalksteenfontein, Sonnenberg said.

Edited by African News Agency

Comments

Showroom

Schauenburg SmartMine IoT
Schauenburg SmartMine IoT

SmartMine IoT has been developed with the mining industry in mind, to provides our customers with powerful business intelligence and data modelling...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
SAIMC (Society for Automation, Instrumentation, Mechatronics and Control)
SAIMC (Society for Automation, Instrumentation, Mechatronics and Control)

Education: Consulting with member companies to obtain the optimal benefits from their B-BBEE spending, skills resources as well as B-BBEE points

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.079 0.131s - 160pq - 4rq
Subscribe Now