20 March 2012: The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) reports that the South African Government will continue and expand its Municipal Energy Efficiency Demand Side Management (EEDSM) fund for another three years, which will support energy efficiency improvements to public infrastructure at the municipal level.

The EEDSM program, which is implemented by Sustainable Energy Africa (SEA), will widen its initial focus on street lighting to also include: a wider range of energy efficiency technologies; capacity building activities; and programmes to mainstream energy efficiency into standard facilities management.

The EEDSM program has been supported in the past by a REEEP project called “Supporting South Africa’s Municipal EEDSM Programme.” The project, inter alia, co-funded a capacity and training event at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban in 2011, and supported a two day training workshop on municipal energy efficiency strategic planning organized by the South African Local Government Association (Salga). [REEEP Press Release] [REEEP Project: Supporting South Africa’s Municipal EEDSM Programme]