The lights are on in Rwanda. The capital, Kigali, with a population of more than 850 000, has already achieved 100% electrification, while the national total is around 82%. Now, Rwanda aims to connect the last 18% – not through a national project, but by going local.

It has launched an ambitious US$16 billion solar-powered drive to connect every home to electricity by 2030. Of the 82% of connected households, 57% are connected via the national grid, while the other 25% are linked via off-grid solar micro-grids. A project started by the World Bank Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency in 2024 is installing solar generation units within village networks, each serving about 30 users (including schools, health centres, local government offices and small businesses).

By going local, Rwanda has provided a model that other African countries now follow. The continent’s urban population will double by 2050, putting its cities at the frontline of the energy crisis. However, national utilities such as the Rwanda Energy Group or Eskom in South Africa aren’t keeping pace. Local municipalities are stepping in to build, buy and manage their own power.

In South Africa, the 2025 Electricity Regulation Amendment Act has been the game changer. It enables an open-market platform, breaking Eskom’s monopoly by allowing multiple generators to sell and multiple buyers (including municipalities) to purchase electricity.

Cape Town was the first major mover. In October 2024, it announced plans to become the first South African city to own and operate a utility-scale solar plant: a 7 MW solar facility in Atlantis, about 40 km north of the city centre. ‘The city currently uses 75% of the tariff income from our electricity sales to buy Eskom power,’ said Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis. ‘With the continued Eskom price escalations, the most recent being an almost 44% hike requested, we simply have to diversify the energy resources. These hikes are not sustainable for the city or our residents, and we will continue to fight against these exorbitant increases.’

The municipality also issued its first 5 MW/8 MWh battery storage tender at the Atlantis site. Both projects are part of the City’s 2050 Energy Strategy, aiming to decentralise Cape Town’s energy system, and make it affordable, resilient and carbon neutral.

Politics was certainly behind the decision, too. While Cape Town (and the Western Cape province) is ruled by the Democratic Alliance (DA), Eskom, as a state-owned entity, is widely seen as ‘belonging’ to national government, led by the DA’s rivals, the African National Congress. That said, Cape Town’s key lesson is that a city can move faster than a national utility when it has political will, a clear financing model and a long-term energy strategy.

That applies to municipalities, too. In May 2025, a 1 MW solar plant was commissioned in the small town of Darling (population 12 000-odd), about 78 km north of Cape Town’s city centre. Darling falls under the Swartland Municipality, whose Integrated Development Plan aims to strengthen energy resilience and reduce dependence on the national grid.

Under the same plan, in January 2026, the Swartland Municipality announced a 20-year power purchase agreement – a long-term contract to purchase electricity – with an independent power producer or a company that generates electricity for sale, for the generation of solar power at a 10 MW site near Malmesbury.

The Swartland Municipality is a rare success story. In South Africa, municipalities are bulk purchasers, not generators. This reliance on Eskom is extraordinarily difficult to escape, as Chris Yelland of EE Business Intelligence and energy consultant Paul Vermeulen note.

In a co-written opinion piece published by the Daily Maverick, Yelland and Vermeulen explain how most municipalities now source virtually all their electricity from Eskom, while still bearing the responsibility for operating, maintaining and expanding their local distribution networks.

‘In theory, municipalities can diversify supply through independent power producers,’ they write. ‘In practice, their ability to do so has been constrained by regulation, licensing, ministerial determinations, complex procurement rules, competency issues and unsettled wheeling and trading frameworks – even where network capacity exists.

‘This “locked-in dependency” is such that municipalities do not have their own generation control or practical freedom to procure competitively at scale. They remain fully exposed to Eskom’s escalating tariffs and demand penalties.’

The inevitable result is that municipalities end up buying at whatever rate Eskom charges, while selling into a local economy that either can’t pay, or can pick from a widening range of alternative options… which is why, in early March, municipal arrears to Eskom exceeded ZAR110 billion, and 14 municipalities were at risk of having their power cut because of non-payment.

Success stories are worth highlighting, as they show how municipal management can work. Take the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, for example.

Between 2011 and 2022, eThekwini’s census-recorded population grew from 3.476 million people to 4.239 million – a 22% increase, driven by urbanisation and economic migration. To meet its growing energy needs (Durban is also a major manufacturing hub), eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in 2025 received government approval to procure 400 MW of power from solar (100 MW) and natural gas (300 MW) generation. A notice in the Government Gazette confirmed that, ‘the new generation capacity is needed to ensure continued uninterrupted supply of electricity’.

This makes eThekwini the first South African metro to be given permission to procure its own generation capacity, ushering in what former mayor Mxolisi Kaunda called ‘a new era of municipal-led generation’.

The move is projected to reduce eThekwini’s reliance on the Eskom grid by 18%, saving ZAR5 billion over the contract period. The regulatory breakthrough also sets a replicable national precedent, which other metros will surely follow.

Another solution could be a bit of both – national grid expansion, supported by a growing role for local governments. Kenya is seeing some success with this model. There, rapid urbanisation has left nearly 30% of the population without reliable elec-tricity. Community-based, solar-powered mini-grids are filling the gap, reaching parts of the country that the national grid cannot yet get to economically.

In Kenyan households, one in four now uses solar-powered standalone systems or mini-grids, and Kenya’s national electricity access rate surged from 37% in 2013 to 79% in 2023 (urban electrification is now at 100%).

The lesson from Kenya is that municipalities and local governments don’t need to own power plants to strengthen energy provision. Instead, they can enable and anchor community solar, off-grid aggregators, and distributed generation programmes, which can move faster than centrally planned grid extension.

The next five years will decide if African municipalities become true energy actors or remain tied to struggling national systems. Municipal energy independence is more than a technical project – it’s a strategy for Africa’s rapid urbanisation.

Today, the continent’s urban population is about 700 million. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development projects that by 2050, it will double to 1.5 billion. And all those people will need energy for homes and businesses.

By Mark van Dijk
Images: Gallo/Getty Images