The City of Cape Town’s (CoCT’s) Facilities Management Department says it has installed power generators at a number of facilities over the last few months as South Africa’s power crisis continues to deepen. 

Facilities that received generators include the Hillstar municipal building; Ottery municipal complex; Rochester Road Metro Police building; Pinelands municipal building and the Wesfleur municipal building, in Atlantis.

The city says it plans to install another eight generators at various facilities before the end of June. 

These include the Bellville South municipal building; Kraaifontein municipal building; Strand municipal building; Brackenfell municipal building; Kuils River municipal civic centre; Parow municipal building; Goodwood municipal building and the Lotus River municipal building.

CoCT says it has also started with an inverter and photovoltaic (PV) solar installation programme, and is currently installing inverters with dedicated circuits to power up operations relating to public interfaces and revenue collection.

These inverters are being commissioned within this week, with the PV solar installations to follow.

The facilities to receive inverters include the Milnerton Traffic Department building; Parow municipal building; Bellville Traffic Department building and the Goodwood Traffic Department building.

The city says it plans to install another nine inverters and PV solar systems by the end of June at the Pienaar Road Traffic Department, in Milnerton; Pinelands municipal building; Kuils River municipal building; resource centre municipal complex, in Khayelitsha; Somerset West municipal building; Ottery municipal building; Fish Hoek municipal building; Hillstar Traffic Department and the Plumstead municipal building.

CoCT says it is also working on ways to fast-track the supply of portable power stations, ranging from 600 W to 3 600 W, to use as and where needed in order to support staff with back-up power at the office, or those working remotely, or those stationed at temporary hot desks during load-shedding.

As these generators require ongoing maintenance and monitoring, the city says it has invested in smart technologies to enable facility managers to monitor the generators remotely.