City Power says its plan for a R3bn ‘virtual power station’ is advancing

Johannesburg’s power utility, City Power, is finalising plans for a so-called ‘virtual power station’ based on a uniquely designed solar water heater that could save the equivalent of one baseload power station unit, CEO Silas Zimu tells Engineering News exclusively. The city, which is Africa’s richest, con-sumes about 3 500 MW at peak, a figure which is reportedly higher than that for the ‘City of Lights’, or Paris, which peaks at about 3 200 MW. Zimu reveals that the concept involves the mass installation of solar water heaters at City Power’s own expense, but for its water-heating revenues to be sustained through the introduction of a special tariff that could be priced at a 15% to 25% discount to a household’s historical water-heating bill.