SA has vast potential for renewables – study

An engineering study has dispelled the myths and propaganda peddled by fired former Eskom CE Brian Molefe and suspended Eskom acting CE Matshela Koko on the limits and costs of accommodating significant levels of variable renewable energy capacity on the South African power grid. According to a Moneyweb report, the study and associated report was prepared for the Department of Energy and Eskom, and commissioned and funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit under the department’s South African – German Energy Programme. The study was conducted by international engineering consultants Dr.-Ing. Markus Pöller and Marko Obert, of Moeller & Poeller Engineering GmbH, and was published in SA in September 2017. The study confirms that the SA power system will be sufficiently flexible to handle large amounts of variable wind and solar PV generation, especially when considering the addition of combined cycle gas turbines and open cycle gas turbines proposed in the Draft IRP 2016 Base Case. The study confirms that large penetration levels of wind and solar PV can be handled by the system from an active power balancing point of view, at moderate additional costs for balancing services (i.e. increased reserve and increased cycling of thermal power plants).

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality is blazing a trail on renewable energy. Port Elizabeth energy services company, Energyworx, is poised to supply several Nelson Mandela Bay outlets of a national fast food chain with green power. A report in The Herald notes that Energyworx is awaiting approval from the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa), after which it will start supplying more than a dozen KFC outlets in the area with renewable energy. It operates from Port Elizabeth’s technology and innovation hub and the custodian of the metro’s SmartCity ambitions, the Propella Business Incubator in Humewood. This was revealed last week by Energyworx director Tim Whitaker, who said the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality was the only metro authority in the country which allowed ‘wheeling’. This enabled Energyworx, through a licensed renewable energy retailer, to supply renewable energy – such as that from wind and solar sources – to commercial entities in the region. ‘As an indication of the benefits to KFC, the company should field a 3% saving in rand terms of its overall energy costs and at no cost to that company,’ Whitaker said.