KEY MESSAGES „ 
  • Municipalities are mandated to provide a liveable and resilient urban environment in line with South Africa’s Constitution and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Municipalities are best positioned to drive a local sustainable electricity system that is environmentally, financially and socially sound. „ 
  • Municipalities face many challenges in this regard (revenue, equity, technical) with no easy answers and many feedback loops. „ 
  • Appropriate tariff setting for electricity, which considers consumer behaviour (also to avoid disconnections from the grid), is needed. „ 
  • Transparency in tariff setting is important – residents need to know what municipalities use the tariffs for. „ 
  • It is important that owners of PV installations register their systems, not only for financial reasons but also for technical and safety considerations. „ 
  • Each municipality needs to understand its customers, and customers need to understand the municipality’s dilemma as well as the value of the grid. „ 
  • The focus should be on common ground: all the parties want the same outcome, namely an electricity grid that is safe and dependable, electricity tariffs that are fair and an overall system that enables an urban environment that is pleasant and safe to live in and supports economic and leisure activity. „ 
  • A decision-making tool for municipalities, which takes into account all the agents in and complexities of the electricity system, is being developed. The aim is to provide municipal and other decision-makers (including Eskom and NERSA) with a practical application tool to help them deal with the dilemmas in the electricity system and design appropriate policies.