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While South Africa finds itself enduring stage 6 loadshedding until further notice, Formula E fans can rest assured that Saturday’s Cape Town E-Prix will be able to take place despite the country’s electricity dilemma.

Also read: Cape Town E-Prix “Not to be missed,” says international star Naomi Schiff

This is according to co-founder and chairperson of e-Movement, Iain Banner, who explained how the race will be able to continue unabated regardless of Eskom’s rolling blackouts.

The first event of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, Table Mountain, will be the backdrop for the second of three consecutive events at new venues for the championship.

Green Point is already a hive of activity around the high-speed, 2.927-kilometre circuit snaking around the DHL Stadium and skirting the coastline.

It’s all systems go, according to the organisers, and power outages will not be allowed to become an obstacle.

“We have a primary power plan with the City of Cape Town, which provides us with the power we require, other than to the car charges, so there is a big ecosystem here,” Banner explained to IOL. “But as is standard at every Formula E race globally, there is a full set of back-up in the form of generators running on bio-fuel because this is all about sustainability.”

“We have a total of 28 generators, which had to be sourced and I undertook it personally, it’s a massive job when every little bit of supply is being absorbed to counter the terrible energy loss that businesses, homes, etc are experiencing.”

“So, it was one of the most challenging elements of it, but the last generator is a 1.4MW machine and will be is rolling in at midday today to come and finish up the charging.”

Banner also said that charging a Formula E car required a tremendous amount of energy.

“The cars are charged by these generations because the instant energy demand is 2MW, which is a huge amount of power and we aren’t situated on a substation, we are out in an open area outside of the stadium so that is actually front-line and back-line generators for the car charging,” he added.

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City of Cape Town is gearing up for E-Prix race weekend

Picture: Supplied / City of Cape Town

 

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