Department of Mineral Resources and Energy
EEDSM Programme
Municipal Energy efficiency LED / retrofits Municipal applicants
At a glance
Programme type
Conditional municipal grant
Delivered by
DMRE
Focus 1
Streetlight LED retrofits
Focus 2
Municipal building efficiency
Focus 3
Water pumping efficiency
Focus 4
Traffic light retrofits
Beneficiary
Municipalities & metros
Reporting
Quarterly to DMRE
Who qualifies
- Registered South African municipality or metro
- Approved municipal energy-efficiency plan
- Capacity to co-fund or match the DMRE allocation
- Meets DMRE's technical baseline and measurement requirements
- Willing to publish quarterly savings and progress reports
Who does not qualify
- Private companies (use Section 12B/12BA instead)
- Individual households (use own-solar routes)
- Municipalities under intervention without financial standing
Documents you bring
- Municipal energy-efficiency plan
- Council resolution supporting the application
- Technical scope of works
- Baseline energy consumption data
- Procurement plan and tender documents (if past baseline)
EEDSM is delivered as a Division of Revenue Act (DoRA) conditional grant. Amounts and municipal allocations are gazetted annually, check the current DoRA schedule for your allocation.
How to apply
- Council adopts an energy-efficiency plan and passes a supporting resolution.
- Municipality submits the annual EEDSM business plan to DMRE by the gazetted deadline.
- DMRE assesses and confirms the allocation per DoRA.
- Municipality procures contractors and runs the retrofit / installation projects.
- Baseline vs post-project measurement and verification (M&V) is submitted.
- Quarterly financial and technical reports are submitted to DMRE and Treasury.
Municipal grants are governed by DoRA. Unspent funds may be rolled over on application, but repeated under-spending triggers a reduction in future allocations.
Under-spending cuts next year's allocation
EEDSM follows a well-known DoRA rhythm: municipalities that repeatedly under-spend their EEDSM grants get smaller allocations the following year. If your municipality is behind on procurement, the fastest way to protect the allocation is a mid-year re-scoping submission to DMRE that reallocates funds to a shovel-ready sub-project.