Drakenstein Municipality has added another award to its existing list of outstanding accolades when it won the Sustainability Impact Award for the Anglophone Africa Region out of all 453 entries in Midrand yesterday (Wednesday, 11 June).
The Sustainability Impact Awards is hosted by Schneider Electric, a French multinational corporation that specialises in digital automation and sustainable energy management.
The awards were launched in 2022 to celebrate and recognise the pivotal role the company’s extensive network of partners play in delivering a more resilient and sustainable electric world.
The municipality’s partnership with Schneider Electric started in 2023.
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Yesterday’s award ceremony took place at the launch of the company’s inaugural Africa Innovation Hub in Midrand, Gauteng. With the award the municipality was recognised for the achievement of its decarbonisation goals.
Some of these achievements include its investment in a multi-year capital project through which all high-pressure sodium (HPS) and metal-halide (MH) public lighting (streetlights, public park lighting, and area security lighting) will be replaced with energy-efficient light-emitting diode or LED-type technology.
It has implemented a demand-side management (ripple control) system for approximately 17 000 households to assist the national grid by reducing geyser loading during peak consumption times.
It has also equipped 52 of its primary signalised traffic intersections with Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems, three of which are fully solar, to ensure good traffic flow and road user safety during load shedding.
Accepting the award on behalf of the municipality, Executive Director of Corporate and Planning Services Seraj Johaar said: “Drakenstein Municipality always tries to be different in a local government space where it is not always fashionable to do so.
“It is quite eye-opening to come into a space like this and see what the work we do on a local government means and what it translates to. This lays the foundation for our sustainability journey.
“We want to build on these good corporate and financial records and take it to the next level.
“We are certainly growing and that is why our shift to sustainable infrastructure is so important. Over the past five years we have electrified half of our 44 informal settlements.
“This technology and innovation is, therefore, important not only for economic development but also for the stability of the grid.”
Over the years the municipality has adopted a strong energy efficiency focus, especially when it comes to new developments.
New municipal bylaws and national building regulations are calling for the installation of solar or heat-pump water geysers, LED lighting, and gas stoves in all new residential developments to ensure energy-efficient designs.
The municipality is also investigating means to install alternative energy solutions in disadvantaged communal areas where the installation of bulk electricity services is deemed too expensive.
Schneider’s outgoing cluster president of the Anglophone Africa region Devin Pillay, said; “Drakenstein has set a remarkable example for municipalities around the world.
“It was the first municipality on the African soil to have adopted an SF6-free medium voltage switch gear solution.”
Future goals include the completion of its partnership-project with Schneider where its 11kV oil electricity distribution infrastructure will be fully replaced with Schneider Electric’s more modern, digitised and green RM AirSeT air-powered ring main unit, reducing the municipality’s carbon footprint by using pure air instead of Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) gas.
SF6 gas is one of the most potent greenhouse gasses known to humankind.
Research has shown that it contributes approximately twenty four thousand times more to global warming than Carbon dioxide (CO2) over a hunderd-year-period.
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