With the last scheduled load-shedding having happened as far back as April 2008, many South Africans are asking whether the electricity crisis is over. However, according to property economist, Erwin Rode, we’re not yet out of the woods.
Says Rode: ‘Economists are currently predicting no more than a 3% economy growth for the country over the next few years, so while electricity seems to be less of a problem, the reason for this has more to do with the economic slowdown and thus the lower demand on electricity than it has to do with Eskom putting its house in order.’
The key now, believes Rode, is planning for an energy-efficient future with regard to new developments. ‘Eskom has introduced a voluntary set of national standards as guidelines for energy efficiency. However, until these guidelines become mandatory (hopefully within the next year) it’s currently up to individual property owners – residential and non-residential – to build them into their own plans or face an even worse crisis in the future.’
Initiatives such as the Central City of Cape Town’s own ‘Energy Efficiency Initiative’ (EEI) are prime examples, believes Rode. Hosted by the Cape Town Partnership, the EEI is the first South African city-level public-private partnership created to reduce energy consumption within commercial buildings.
Says Andrew Boraine, Chief Executive of Cape Town Partnership: ‘We want to ensure that new buildings are designed “green” from the start and that landowners look to retro-fit their existing buildings with more energy efficient lighting, air-conditioning and hot-water heating systems. We’ve brought in the expertise of a reputable energy service company (Shared Energy Management) that specializes in reducing a building’s energy capacity by an average of 20% and in some case up to 50%. We’ve conducted a study comparing the electricity consumption of 20 commercial buildings in the Central City which shows that there is good scope for energy efficiency savings.’
To date, the programme has already audited fourteen pilot buildings, and the first one to go ahead with a retrofit is the massive Media 24 head office situated in the Cape Town Foreshore area.
The trend has also now become a major selling point in new residential projects with a “green” sales pitch. Says Rode: ‘Hopefully its just a matter of time before these nice-to-have selling points become legislated must-have requirements in all buildings.’
However, retrofitting is expensive, and it is unlikely that owners will do this on a large scale until electricity tariffs are sufficiently high to warrant the cost. “Equally, it would be helpful if Eskom were to accept and pay for electricity generated from ‘green’ sources,” says Rode.