Background
Everyone is tired of the ongoing load shedding that means having to plan things as simple as when to go shopping without the need to to carry the bags up umpteen flights of stairs when the lifts are off. The trustees were tasked with investigating options to provide, at the very least, lifts that work during load shedding. Just “doing” the lifts wasn’t simple and the costs of just doing that were prohibitive with no financial benefit in the long run. As electricity costs escalate and Eskom’s woes are likely to continue for many years to come, it made sense to look at taking the common property power off the city’s grid by means of adequate solar power and storage.
The City of Cape Town has declared a policy of encouraging both commercial and residential users to “go solar” and is also putting in place the necessary legal instruments to allow them to purchase surplus power from such embedded power generation to supplement the city’s power, further reducing dependence on Eskom.
Your trustees had a tender document drawn up by a professional engineer for B-block initially in order to make sure that all bases were covered – electrical and structural – using the city’s list of acceptable equipment. This will ensure that the resulting installation would not only meet our needs but also qualify for a bidirectional connection to the city’s grid. Three proposals were received and one was identified as being the best. As a result, we have a proposal as well as an offer of affordable finance.
To make things easier to understand, here’s a list of questions that were put to your trustees both at the last SGM where we unfortunately failed to get the required level of approval and in subsequent interactions with owners. If there are any questions that you have, please email them to glyn@stmartinigardens.co.za. We will answer them and add to the FAQ list.
We will be holding a further SGM on 28 February 2023 to reconsider the proposal – owners please watch out for the Notice. If you are really unable to attend physically or online please use your tenant or agent if possible to hold your proxy. On the subject of proxies, please look at the FAQs as there are some ideas there if you don’t have a long-term tenant who could attend for you.
The Solar Solution – Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve put together a list of questions that have been asked by owners either at the last SGM or by email as well as some others that we feel will make it easier for you to understand the proposal and the process as well as the planning that has gone into this exercise. You can download the FAQ sheet here