GEORGE NEWS - A wheeling project of George Municipality's electrotechnical team has been nominated under the top five green sustainability initiatives in the Green Economy Change Champions event by GreenCape and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF).
The finalists are George Municipality (Project: Electricity wheeling project), Overstrand Municipality (Project: Overstrand outsourcing of bulk water services operation and maintenance), City of Cape Town (Project: Energy management system), uMhlatuze Local Municipality (Project: Drone technology for non-revenue water) and Nkomazi Local Municipality (Project: Untum recycling).
Criteria for the shortlist were: the impact on service delivery, innovation, sustainability and replication potential and the five projects have been showcased at an event hosted online.
The initiatives will be evaluated by a panel of judges and the top initiative will be announced at an event in October.
The winning municipal initiative will receive the opportunity to produce a video production demonstrating the project, which will be shared on various platforms.
Electrotechnical Services Deputy Director for Planning and Design, Daniel Greeff, said the wheeling project is the first step towards a competitive energy market. "Looking into the future, this may lead to an energy model where different energy generators supply power to the end users, making use of the existing municipal infrastructure.
"This will also provide an opportunity for more renewable energy sources to be introduced to the municipal grid. The result would be a reduction of dependency on carbon-based fuels as well as relieving the burden on Eskom to generate."
Director of Electrotechnical Services Bongani Mandla said the roll-out process started as a council-approved pilot project.
"Implementation of the pilot was a success and wheeling of energy is taking place through the George municipal network. It is essential to acknowledge the teams which were involved in bringing this project to where it is now. As the directorate we are indebted to these officials who went beyond the call of duty to drive this pioneering project."
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