All traffic lights at the 788 controlled intersections in Pretoria are to be retrofitted with light-emitting diodes and later backed up to solar power, the Tshwane metropolitan council said on Wednesday.
This followed meetings between mayor Gwen Ramokgopa and big business, as well as a research institution in the city, outlining the council’s plans to deal with the electricity crisis.
”I’m asking you to contribute to minimise the electricity cuts in the city by becoming as electricity efficient as possible and saving between 10% and 15% of your current power use,” she said at a briefing.
The city’s strategic executive officer, Ndivho Lukhwareni, also outlined plans to reduce the use of electricity, including larger outputs from the city’s own two power stations.
The immediate plans included the retrofitting of the traffic lights at an estimated cost of almost R142-million and the retrofitting of the city’s 140 000 streetlights and 1 680 high mast lighting with energy-efficient lights.
”We will also no longer stock any conventional lighting from the new financial year, meaning all new lights that will be installed will be energy efficient,” Lukhwareni said.
The city plans to recapitalise its two power stations at Rooiberg and Pretoria West, increasing the power supply of the stations from 200MW to 420MW.
It is already in the process of delivering 20 000 gas cylinders to Atteridgeville households as a pilot project.
Longer-term plans included promulgating by-laws that would require power back-ups at emergency sites such as hospitals.
New housing developments would only be approved when they met the minimum requirements of 10% alternative energy generation.
Other long-term plans included installing power-efficient lights in the council’s buildings and the consideration of making it mandatory for new high-end housing developments to install solar water heaters.
There were also plans to fit remote controls to households to switch off high watt usage equipment such as geysers, stoves and under-floor heating.
The city believed that by doing this it could control up to 500MW of power at a time, averting controlled power cuts.
One of the major concerns the business community raised was the poor communication on the timing of the power cuts.
Ramokgopa undertook to improve communication. Pretoria residents and businessmen would in coming weeks be able to access a website that allowed them to enter their street addresses to get specific information on power cuts.
Although the Tshwane metropolitan council already posted information on planned power cuts on its website, the new site would be more accurate and be updated in real time giving residents the latest information and times on power cuts.
Ramokgopa agreed to meet again with the research institutions and the business community to discuss more ways to tackle the electricity crisis. — Sapa