Cape Town - The first in Premier Alan Winde’s series of Energy Digicons took place on Thursday to keep residents informed and answer burning questions they had about the unprecedented levels of load shedding experienced, as well as detail on the Western Cape Government’s (WGC) short, medium and long-term energy plans.
The premier elaborated on how his R1.1 billion allocation for the energy crisis, announced in the State of the Province Address, would be used to carry out the province’s energy resilience plan to ease the impact on residents of rolling blackouts – a provincial Disaster Management Plan and Blackout Plan have already been established.
Winde said: “By holding digicons, similar to what we did during the Covid-19 pandemic, we can to a degree allay people’s anxiety, offering them critical information which helps them plan better during this crisis … Energy should not be something that we question.”
Winde explained that the Energy Digicons would be taking place weekly on the Premier’s social media platforms to keep the public updated on the province’s progress with its energy plans to reduce load shedding and feedback from the WCG’s Energy Council, which was working to ensure the Western Cape was energy resilient.
The Energy Digicons would also be used to share details with the public on how the province would use the state of disaster regulations to create an enabling environment to bring as much power on to the grid as quickly as possible.
Former Eskom executive Alwie Lester, who is now an energy adviser in the Office of the Premier, explained why WCG sought to reduce reliance on the national system.
“In terms of Eskom’s capacity nationally, what they tend to do is look at the demand, and how Eskom is able to manage that demand, for a day ahead, a week ahead, and a month ahead.
“But over the last year and a half, the confidence levels in the week ahead and month ahead have dropped substantially – you’ll find that most times it is really just a day or two ahead (that they can forecast),” Lester said.
In the digicon Winde spoke about his meeting with Eskom’s former CEO Andre de Ruyter in December, where he sought advice on how the Province should approach energy provision and said he was advised to become independent as quickly as possible.