Day: January 4, 2023

Western Cape Government will move faster this year in making province more energy secure
Today Premier Alan Winde visited a Macassar-based business, Taylor Technology, that is taking steps to ameliorate the impact of ongoing load shedding. The Premier was accompanied by former Eskom executive Alwie Lester, who has now joined the Western Cape Government (WCG) team, and Executive Director of Energy at the City of Cape Town Kadri Nassiep.
Another difficult year of rolling power cuts lies ahead for the country. By visiting Taylor Technology, the Premier had an opportunity to see for himself how the private sector – particularly small to medium-sized businesses – are faring and what the Western Cape Government (WCG) can do to nurture an enabling environment for business owners and their employees.
“Making the Western Cape more energy resilient will remain a top priority for the WCG in 2023,” Premier Winde assured residents. He added, “We need to make sure there is more investment into and from the private sector to mitigate the devastating effects of load shedding. In 2022 we had 3 630 hours cumulative hours of load shedding in South Africa. Economic recovery and more importantly job creation cannot happen under these circumstances. ”
“2022 was a year of recovery for the province. In 2023 we will push harder to further our economic recovery amid the ongoing energy crisis. The very successful festive season concluded the Western Cape’s year of recovery,” the Premier emphasised. He added, “But now at the beginning of 2023 we know that it will be a challenging year, but it is nonetheless a year of hope and opportunity for the Western Cape.”
He applauded Energy Capital – a business that has so far installed 280 solar panels at Taylor Technology’s premises to help it become more resilient and sustainable – for harnessing the potential of the renewable energy sector.
“I applaud our partners in the private sector for taking chances by setting up their business operations in our province, bringing with them economic and job opportunities, and for helping in our collective drive to become more energy resilient. This will take a mammoth effort; it is, however, one we are up to and committed to. My government and I will be working closely with the private sector and municipalities across the province to ensure we create an enabling environment for energy resilience. I am very excited by the work that I am seeing in Saldanha Bay, Stellenbosch, George, and the City of Cape Town to bring more independent Power Producers (IPPs) on board and we will work closely with all provincial municipalities in 2023 to develop our energy resilience. Premier Winde concluded.”

Source: Government of South Africa

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has announced that the price of both grades of petrol will decrease by R2.06 per litre, while diesel is to drop by between R2.68 (500ppm) and R2.80 (50ppm).

The new prices, effective from Wednesday, mean that a litre of 95 unleaded petrol will now cost R20.75 at the coast and R21.40 inland. 93 unleaded now costs R21.10.

The wholesale price of 50ppm diesel is set to drop to R20.79, although retail prices, which vary between outlets, will be higher.

The price of Illuminating Paraffin (wholesale) will drop by R1.93, while the Single Maximum National Retail price (SMNRP) for Illuminating Paraffin will drop by R2.58 per litre.

The Maximum LPGas Retail Price, on the other hand, will increase by 82 cents per kilogram.

The department attributed the adjustment in prices to various international and local factors, including the decrease in the Brent Crude oil price and international petroleum product prices; the slight appreciation of the rand against the US dollar, and the implementation of the slate levy (a decrease of 21.90 c/l — from 83.28 c/l to 61.38 c/l – which will be implemented into the price structures of petrol and diesel effective 4 January).

Source: South African Government News Agency