Western Cape premier Alan Winde on Thursday called on energy minister Gwede Mantashe to consider a proposal that municipalities be authorised to procure power, ranging from 1MW to 10MW, from independent producers.

In a letter to Mantashe, Winde said former Western Cape premier Helen Zille had written to Mantashe’s predecessor, Jeff Radebe, on February 28 with the proposal.

Winde said Zille’s proposal would not require any legislative process and would offer a quick win to bring new generation capacity on line.

“This would be at no cost to the fiscus and would increase the energy resilience of municipalities and South Africa as a whole,” Winde said.

His letter followed the implementation of load-shedding by Eskom on Wednesday.

Winde also called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to act to allow municipalities to procure power from independent power producers.