The Western Cape government says it remains on track to reach its target of generating 5 700 MW of its own energy by 2035, and could even become a net exporter of renewable energy by 2032.

Premier Alan Winde this week provided an update on the progress his government had made in building up the province’s energy and water security capabilities.

This followed the first 2025 meeting of the Western Cape Integrated Energy and Water Council.

“On the energy front, there has been impressive progress in municipalities such as the City of Cape Town and Hessequa, in the Southern Cape, to name just a few,” said Winde.

“Following the completion of a pilot project, Cape Town has now opened up its power grid to private investors through its electricity wheeling programme. And the Hessequa municipality’s 10 MW solar PV project to make the town of Riversdale loadshedding-free and independent of Eskom for its power needs, is already well under way.”

Winde said the Western Cape had taken “a major step” towards democratising, diversifying and decentralising energy generation, which was a key strategic objective of the Western Cape Energy Resilience programme.

“If we secure our energy and water needs, we can sufficiently drive economic growth.”

Winde believed the national power grid remained “very vulnerable”.

The premier’s Special Adviser on Energy, Alwie Lester, said that the nearly year-long national reprieve from loadshedding was primarily owing to critical maintenance work conducted at Eskom generating units.

“But, with that very limited maintenance, there was also a risk to secondary systems at Eskom. This put a lot of pressure on peaking plants.”

Lester said the Western Cape had, in the last year, seen around 1 000 MW of non-Eskom generation come into the province's power system.

“In this coming year, we expect another 1 000 MW non-Eskom power to come into the system.”

Winde also slammed the recent approval of a 12.74% hike in the electricity tariff for the 2025/26 financial year by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.

This increase is around three times higher than inflation.

“How are already hard-pressed residents expected to absorb this blow? It is unconscionable and unaffordable.

“We are still waiting for Eskom to announce how much it will be charging to sell electricity to municipalities. Any increase will put a further strain on our municipalities and, therefore, residents who get their energy from municipalities.”

Winde also acknowledged that “more and more people are moving to the Western Cape” and that this was placing additional pressure on the province’s water supply and infrastructure.