Johannesburg — Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica told FIFA delegates on Monday that her department, the custodian of energy security, will ensure energy supply for both football tournaments.

"The Department of Minerals and Energy [DME] is tasked with ensuring energy security in South Africa for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

"We have embarked on a number of infrastructure projects and procurement of generators," said the minister.

Ms Sonjica explained that to boost South Africa's reserve margin and power supply that R136 million had been allocated to world cup host cities for the construction of substations.

"Johannesburg and Pretoria both received R10 million to build substations which will be ready by May and April 2009, respectively," she said.

The City of Cape Town received R20 million for its substations which will be operational by May 2009.

Mbombela received R29.5 million, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality also received R3 million, while Polokwane was allocated R20 million.

All of the funds, she said, would be used for the construction of substations that would boost electricity supply, particularly in the vicinity of stadiums.

According to FIFA, all stadiums across the country must run on generators as its main source of energy, with the Eskom power grid as the backup power, the minister said.

With regard to liquid fuels necessary to run many of the generators for the world cup, the minister said South Africa will deliver on the 3.4 million litres of liquid fuel required.

Eskom Managing Director for the Special Project 2010 division, Johnny Dladla told media that they were focussed on ensuring reliable electricity supply to top host cities during the two tournaments.

The MD highlighted that Eskom has looked at France, Korea, Germany and Austria to evaluate how they dealt with the increased demand for electricity during major sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup and Rugby World Cup.

"We have taken these lessons learnt from these countries and will use them to inform our plans going forward," said the MD.

As part of Eskom's Build Programme, which will be complete by 2013, brought about as a result of the load-shedding earlier this year, will be returning many mothballed stations to operational status.

The programme will also use Open Cycle Gas Turbines and strengthen existing networks as well as refurbish the Apollo substation.

Mr Dladla further said, six main substations have already been completed which will provide a welcome boost to power supply in South Africa. -