Joburg city seeks power supply from private firms

JOHANNESBURG’S municipality intends buying 500 megawatts of electricity from independent producers to help avert ongoing power outages in South Africa’s biggest city.

A request for proposals is awaiting approval from the National Treasury and should be issued within weeks, Mpho Phalatse, Johannesburg’s mayor, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Johannesburg offices on Monday.

“We going to invite private companies to bid to work with government,” she said. “The kind of deals we want to put together should ensure that our revenue is protected,” and that the energy supply is stabilized, she said.

Eskom Holdings, the State utility that generates most of South Africa’s electricity, has subjected the country to rolling blackouts since 2008, because its mostly old and poorly maintained plants have been unable to meet demand. The national government recently gave municipalities permission to generate their own energy or buy it in from other sources, with Cape Town having already announced