25 November 2008
South Africa has allocated R136-million to improve the electricity infrastructure around its football stadiums in order to ensure an uninterrupted power supply during the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup and 2010 Fifa World Cup, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica told Fifa delegates on Monday.
Speaking during a briefing at the Soccerex exhibition in Johannesburg, Sonjica said the R136-million had been allocated to the country’s nine World Cup host cities for the construction of substations in the vicinity of the 2010 stadiums.
“Johannesburg and Pretoria both received R10-million to build substations which will be ready by May and April 2009 respectively,” she said.
Cape Town received R20-million for its substations, which will be operational by May 2009. Mbombela received R29.5-million, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality R3-million, and Polokwane R20-million.
According to Fifa, all stadiums across the country must run on generators as their main source of energy, with Eskom’s national power grid providing back-up power, Sonjica said.
Regarding the liquid fuels necessary to run many of the generators for the World Cup, she said South Africa would deliver on the 3.4-million litres of liquid fuel required.
Eskom 2010 special project MD Johnny Dladla told the media that the company was focussed on ensuring a reliable electricity supply to the host cities during the two tournaments.
He said Eskom had looked at France, Korea, Germany and Austria to evaluate how they dealt with increased demand for electricity during major sporting events.
“We have taken these lessons learnt from these countries and will use them to inform our plans going forward,” Dladla said.
Source: BuaNews
