Building resilience to energy insecurity: enabling small-scale embedded generation

This case study by GreenCape examines how the City of Cape Town and other South African municipalities have integrated small-scale embedded generation (SSEG), primarily rooftop solar PV, into their systems to build resilience against energy insecurity, load shedding, and rising electricity costs.

• The South African small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) market is dominated by rooftop solar PV, with an estimated total installed capacity of approximately 700MW. In 2018, over 200MW of solar PV modules were installed, and it was projected that rooftop solar PV installations could exceed 1GWp by the end of 2019.
• Load shedding in South Africa has caused significant economic damage, with Stage 1 to 3 outages costing the economy between R20 billion and R80 billion (US$1.5 billion to US$5.8 billion) per month. This, combined with rising electricity prices, has increased demand for alternative energy sources.
• The City of Cape Town pioneered the SSEG process in South Africa, starting with a 2012 pilot involving three domestic households. By October 2018, this had unlocked investment in solar PV in the city, with at least 18MW of solar PV registered.
• The SSEG framework developed for Cape Town was replicated across the Western Cape and South Africa. By October 2018, 22 of 25 electricity-distributing municipalities in the Western Cape allowed SSEG, with 18 having NERSA-approved feed-in tariffs. Nationally, 18% of local electricity distribution utilities had the necessary regulations and tariffs in place.
• GreenCape identified six levers to drive the transition to small-scale embedded generation: providing technical support and knowledge for government and utilities; ensuring regulatory and policy certainty; creating technical standards; growing the local skills base for job creation; developing new finance models; and stimulating private sector investment by removing information asymmetry.

APA

GreenCape (2019). Building resilience to energy insecurity: enabling small-scale embedded generation. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20190416-GreenCape-Resilience-Reports-Energy-FA-Interactive-3.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Building resilience to energy insecurity: enabling small-scale embedded generation. 2019. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20190416-GreenCape-Resilience-Reports-Energy-FA-Interactive-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Building resilience to energy insecurity: enabling small-scale embedded generation |date=2019 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20190416-GreenCape-Resilience-Reports-Energy-FA-Interactive-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencape2019building, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Building resilience to energy insecurity: enabling small-scale embedded generation}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2019}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20190416-GreenCape-Resilience-Reports-Energy-FA-Interactive-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }