Midvaal leads with new approach to municipalities’ electricity challenges

South African municipalities play a vital role in the distribution of electricity, distributing about 40% of electricity to end users and servicing the majority of the country’s nearly 14 million electrified homes.

Increasingly, rising supply costs and operational inefficiencies, coupled with affordable renewables and “behind the meter” technologies, have resulted in rising user tariffs and dwindling demand.

Historically, municipalities have been obliged to purchase power exclusively from state power utility Eskom. Eskom’s high escalation of tariffs, now well above the cost of renewables, has consistently driven consumers to cut demand and deflect from the grid through embedded generation such as solar PV.