When it comes to domestic, grid-tied, rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in South Africa, as with so many other aspects in the country’s electricity supply industry, outdated thinking and reactionary rules are holding back the supply of electricity in misguided efforts to protect the incumbent monopolies.

Even municipal electricity distributors in South Africa considered to be progressive and forward-thinking, such as the City of Cape Town, have ridiculous, self-serving rules regarding domestic solar PV systems that feed electricity back into the grid. Other municipal and Eskom electricity distributors are no different.

NRS 098 2-1, the outdated Eskom and municipal electricity standard used as the rulebook for small-scale embedded generation (SSEG), limits the size of grid-tied, rooftop solar PV systems in residential installations.

For example, a solar PV system on a house with a 60A single-phase supply is limited to 3.68kW. Similarly, other limits apply to residential installations with 40A, 80A or 10A single or three-phase supplies.

Apparently, the 3.68kW limit was calculated on the basis that if every single house connected to a final distribution transformer had a 60A single-phase supply, and all were to install identically sized grid-tied solar PV systems, then 3.68kW would be the size per solar PV system above which voltage rise may become a problem.

Obviously, this was and still is a completely absurd and unrealistic assumption for such a calculation in the first place.

Furthermore, the NRS standard was written at a time when smaller inverters for rooftop solar PV systems did not necessarily provide voltage regulation.

These days, however, even small inverters have voltage control facilities, thus obviating any need for concerns about voltage rise.

Therefore, there is absolutely no technical need for such unrealistic restrictions on the size of domestic grid-tied, rooftop, solar PV installations on single or three-phase supplies, and grid-tied solar PV sizes three times higher could be comfortably accommodated with the right approach.
Advert

On the one hand, the use of prepayment electricity meters to facilitate revenue collection and revenue protection is being pushed by Eskom and municipal electricity distributors, particularly for lower-income domestic installations.

However, the benefits of compensation for electricity generated back into the grid from rooftop solar PV installations are specifically excluded. They are not available to domestic customers with prepayment electricity meters.

The reality is that the prepayment meters currently provided by Eskom and municipal electricity distributors in South Africa are largely outdated and anything but smart.

Eskom and municipal prepayment meters have problems accommodating even the existing inclined block tariffs off properly, let alone handle time-of-use tariffs or feed-in tariffs for grid-tied solar PV systems.

Read more.............

The Western Cape’s Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) Initiative has signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with all six of the candidate municipalities participating in the initiative. 

This follows a ceremonial signing with the executive mayor of Stellenbosch Alderman Gesie van Deventer, on behalf of the Stellenbosch municipality, which will be participating in the first phase of the MER Initiative in this financial year.

The Drakenstein, Mossel Bay, Overstrand, Saldanha Bay and Swartland municipalities will also participate in the initiative. 

The signing of these MoUs is a critical step in Phase 1 of the MER Initiative and follows a readiness evaluation to determine which municipalities are most equipped and meet the conditions required to take advantage of the energy regulations to develop their own power generation projects and procure power from independent power producers (IPPs), says Western Cape Finance and Economic Opportunities Minister David Maynier.

“We will now be supporting and assisting these municipalities to ensure that municipal electricity networks are prepared to undertake pioneering renewable energy projects,” he notes.

Maynier says the work will explore multiple pioneering renewable energy technologies and scales, cost options, scale of investment required, location issues, risks, municipal readiness needs, infrastructure needs, timelines to get capacity onto the grid, transaction and procurement mechanisms, and regulatory issues.    

“While we have been finalising the MoUs with these municipalities, we successfully concluded a request for information (RfI) calling on all potential private and public sector organisations, including municipalities, to provide information on renewable energy projects which will assist in defining the potential pioneering projects that can be implemented in relevant candidate municipalities in the Western Cape.  

Advert

​“Additionally, we are also collaborating with the City of Cape Town and welcome their recent announcement of an RfI for innovative funding and financing instrument solutions for their Renewable Energy Programme,” Maynier acclaims.

He says the RfI is aimed at development banks and multilateral development funds for projects that the city will own and operate, located on city-owned land and buildings (typically within the city distribution grid) and ranging in size from less than 1 MW to 100 MW per project, with the potential to explore larger-scale projects connected to State-owned power utility Eskom’s network.

“We will continue to do everything we can to support municipalities and businesses to participate in the growing the green energy sector and to become more energy resilient so that together we can create a more energy resilient future in the Western Cape,” Maynier comments. 

Source.......

The City of Cape Town is calling private and public sector financiers to submit proposals for the low-cost finance of renewable energy projects that will be owned and operated by the city.

The city hopes to have a ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) plant built and operated by around 2022/23.

This is in addition to the plan to procure some of its energy from independent power producers in future, it said.

‘The programme will be made up of a number of projects ranging in size from less than 1MW to 100MW per project and all projects will be located on city-owned land and buildings, typically within the city distribution grid,” said deputy mayor Ian Neilson.

​“It will comprise a range of technologies and sizes, including both rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV systems, developed and implemented over a period of 20 years, until 2040.”

The renewable energy provided is expected to be derived predominantly from solar photovoltaics and wind generation systems accompanied by utility-scale energy storage, with the opportunity for other renewable or lower-carbon energy sources to be included.
The finance provided must also cover all costs required to connect the projects to the distribution grid.
The minimum operational life of each project is expected to be 20 years and accordingly, the tenure of the funding instrument should be in the region of 15 to 20 years.
The finance provided should cover all costs of development and construction of each power plant and can be in the form of loans/debt, grants, equity, credit guarantees, or a blend thereof.
Read more......

Advert

Italian inverter manufacturer, Enertronica Santerno S.p.A, has announced that its Board of Directors has approved an investment plan for the expansion of the manufacturing activities in South Africa. Enertronica Santerno has been actively operating in the South African market for close to ten years now.

The AIM Italia listed company says it will invest around Euro 1 million (R17 million) in South Africa, spread over three years. The investment provides for the capability of manufacturing inverters for both standard photovoltaic applications and for electricity storage systems, for a total power of almost 1 GW and maximum production capacity of more than 500 MW per year. 

“After a period of marked slowdown, the South African energy market is moving once again towards a constant growth pace over the coming few years, due to the renewed commitment of the public authorities, with investment plans dedicated to renewable energy,” the company said. 

The project will be implemented starting from a production structure established over several years of operations in the country and which has proven to be highly reliable and successful, so that the Group will be able to deliver locally assembled inverters by the end of 2021. The whole Investment will be financed through internal resources of the Group with no impacts on the level of indebtedness of the same.

Advert

The company built a production plant in 2013 for the manufacturing of supporting structures for photovoltaic panels which supplied steel works for around 400 MW of panels. Subsequently, inverter-based power stations for a total capacity of around 600 MW were locally built with a 50% local content, making Enertronica Santerno one of the leading local producers in South Africa in its own market sector. 

The purpose of the Investment is the implementation of local manufacturing of inverters for renewable energy (photovoltaic) and electrical systems with storage, in order to supply products with a local content higher than 40%, exceeding, therefore, the minimum requirements recently imposed within the REE-IPP (Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme) Bid 5 framework, where inverters are included in the list of components with a minimum required Local Content, as specified in Appendix 5A – Designated Local Content (Economic Development Obligations), ED Sub-Element 200-SR-03B.

Read more.........

The South African contract Karpowership is chasing could be a game-changer for the group, making Eskom its largest client globally. What will we pay and how much will the Turkish conglomerate pocket? AmaBhungane does the sums.

One well-publicised estimate puts the cost of the South African Karpowership contracts over 20 years at more than R200-billion. This number is simply the “evaluation tariff” the company provided when it bid for allocations under the emergency Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMI4P), multiplied by the absolute maximum amount of power Eskom can buy from the company in terms of the programme’s rules*.

This comes to R225.7-billion over 20 years or R11.3-billion per year.

The RMI4P rules also provide for a minimum guaranteed “take or pay” element where Eskom has to pay for a certain amount of power, irrespective of whether it actually needs it. 

This is equal to 70% of the maximum possible sales, ie, R7.9-billion per year or R158-billion over 20 years. 

Advert

This is the revenue at the level of the local subsidiary Karpowership SA which is 49%-owned by a local consortium. All of that comes from Eskom. 

These, however, are ballpark figures because the actual tariff Karpower and other bidders will charge is tied to reigning gas prices, among other conditions.

These figures represent revenue, which is a good measure of what Eskom will pay, but a bad measure of how much money Karpowership will make. 

They include fuel costs which the company simply buys and sells onward as a “pass-through”. If you remove that from the equation you get the elements that really make up Karpowership’s income. 

The main one is the capacity charge or, for simplicity’s sake, the rental cost of the powerships. 

There are also smaller items that the parent company charges the local subsidiary for, like spare parts.

Rental income and spare parts, which together make up the bulk of total revenue, all go to the international group. Smaller expenses will, however, occur in South Africa. According to documents that Karpowership submitted as part of its local bid, the local component of costs come to about 9.3% of the operating expenditure, excluding fuel.

So what is the contract worth to Karpowership? 

As part of an ongoing court case involving allegations of corruption in the RMI4P process, Karpowership has filed parts of its RMI4P bid that show the breakdown of expenses at one of its three proposed projects: Coega.

According to this document, the rent paid abroad will be roughly R35-billion, with another R6-billion paid for spare parts over the 20 years. This seems to exclude the fuel ship that will accompany the powerships. That’s an additional R11.7-billion.

Read more>>>>>>>

THE recent announcement by President Ramaphosa of the new 100 MW threshold for embedded electricity generation, up from just 1 MW, was welcome news for many companies. However, while big businesses are jumping to investigate their self-generation options, there are many others who are destined to remain in the dark.

The ability to invest in on-site power generation is a luxury afforded to mature businesses with reliable cash flow – and a lot of space. A clear example of this is the 40 MW solar plant planned for Gold Fields’ South Deep mine in Gauteng, with a R660-million price tag and spanning the area of 200 soccer fields.

“Yes, R660 million is a significant investment, but so are the benefits of operating our own solar plant. Unaffordable and unrelenting Eskom tariff increases, and unreliable supply of electricity is a major risk for all mining companies,” comments Martin Preece, EVP of Gold Fields South Africa. The solar plant will be funded from the mine’s positive cash-flows over the next two years, and will generate 22% of the average electricity consumption of the mine.

“Other mining companies have developed or are in the process of developing their own solar plants,” says Preece.

This is great news for the sustainability of the mining industry, both in terms of business and the environment. But what about the thousands of other companies and SMMEs in South Africa? They now face two challenges: 1) a lack of resources for their own self-gen project and 2) the ongoing problems with Eskom – which may just get worse as many of the utility’s blue-chip customers get off the grid.

The solar farm at South Deep will translate into a R120 million annual saving of the cost of electricity for the mine. That is R120-million less to Eskom, which is already facing dire financial constraints. Add to that, the Deep South solar plant is planned at less than half the newly announced threshold for generation capacity. A single 100 MW plant could deprive Eskom of R300-million in business.

Advert

Preece has confirmed that since the announcement, Gold Fields is now investigating upping capacity to 70 MW. Many mines are sure to follow suit, potentially generating billions of Rands worth of their own power each year. While many stakeholders have hailed the new regulations as key in alleviating grid pressure and give Eskom room to complete much-needed maintenance and construction, it could well have the opposite effect. Losing business to self-generation might worsen Eskom’s woes, and grid-reliant businesses will be caught in the crossfire.

The “good” news is: this won’t happen overnight. Preece says, “It will take years for all the planned renewable projects to be commissioned. Until then, the industry will still be solely dependent on Eskom, and the utility’s high tariffs and continued load-shedding will be a major obstacle.”

Source........

South Africa’s renewable energy programme has begun to move towards sustainable goals and a just energy transition.

A decade into South Africa’s renewable energy programme, evidence of a maturing sector continues to come to the fore. Most recently, the launch of a programme that will help the sector to be a legitimate actor in the just energy transition, through deliberate involvement in the Sustainable Development Goals of the country.

The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REI4P), is recognised as a highly effective policy instrument, designed to accelerate and sustain private investment in renewable energy by channeling private sector expertise and investment and additionally plays a significant role in the social landscape of South Africa. 

Now, with the launch of the Initiative for Social Performance in Renewable Energy (INSPIRE) last week, the country will have a centre of excellence to drive leadership in the energy transition through training, convening, research and innovation.
​
Ntombifuthi Ntuli, CEO of the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) explained: “It can be said that the sector is certainly coming of age. With a baseline of information gathered over the last ten years, through planning and executing socio-economic development (SED) initiatives for renewable energy projects, we are ready to shift from compliance-driven initiatives to more impact-driven programmes.”

“Our vision is to see more collaboration amongst the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and also with other sectors of the economy, such as mining. Collaboration will enable us to co-create programmes with the communities, and at the same time, pool our resources to ensure more impactful initiatives, which INSPIRE, will help us capacitate.”

INSPIRE, led by Synergy Global Consulting under the guidance of Dr Holle Wlokas, aims to advance the field of social performance in South Africa’s renewable energy sector, by creating a centre of excellence to drive leadership through learning, knowledge sharing, partnership and innovation.

Speaking at the launch of this programme, which is implemented in partnership with WITS University, Dr Wlokas highlighted the advancement of the maturing REI4P sector and the growing understanding of the complex challenges to make a meaningful and long-term contribution to the development trajectory of communities and economies around the country.

Advert

Renewable sector works towards sustainability goals and a just energy transition
“As the sectors understanding of economic development and the wider field of social performance has matured over the past couple of years, we have seen companies grow dedicated teams to manage the work scopes. The number of professionals employed in this scope has risen from a mere handful at the onset of the REI4P to close to a hundred, and more even when counting site-level Community Liaison Officers,” Dr Wlokas explained.

Learning from more established industry sectors, it is recognised that the capacity of social performance practitioners is absolutely critical in enabling the development outcomes of the REI4P to be realised.

​Read more......

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched England’s first hydrogen double-decker buses. The 20 new buses are the first of their kind to be launched in England; the new hydrogen fuel cell double decker buses are first being introduced on route 7 between East Acton and Oxford Circus.

The buses were manufactured by Wrightbus in Northern Ireland, and the gas cylinders are manufactured by Luxfer in Nottingham. The hydrogen for the buses is currently being produced at Air Liquide’s plant in Runcorn, harnessing waste hydrogen as a by-product from an industrial chlor-alkali plant. Oxford-based Ryze Hydrogen is responsible for transporting the fuel to the fueling station. From 2023, the hydrogen will be even greener as it will be produced by electrolysis powered by a direct connection to an offshore windfarm.

Bus-diagram

A new fueling station completed by Danish engineering firm Nel Hydrogen, in collaboration with multinational consultancy firm Linesight, will top up each hydrogen fuel cell bus just once per day in as little as five minutes.

In addition to around £6 million (US$8.3 million) of funding from TfL, more than £5 million (US$6.9 million) of funding has been provided by European bodies—by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, and the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), an executive agency of the European Commission—as well as £1 million (US$1.4 million) from the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles.

A new fueling station completed by Danish engineering firm Nel Hydrogen, in collaboration with multinational consultancy firm Linesight, will top up each hydrogen fuel cell bus just once per day in as little as five minutes.

In addition to around £6 million (US$8.3 million) of funding from TfL, more than £5 million (US$6.9 million) of funding has been provided by European bodies—by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, and the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), an executive agency of the European Commission—as well as £1 million (US$1.4 million) from the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles.

Source........

State-owned energy companies from South Africa and Mozambique have exercised their rights to buy the 30% stake in the Rompco natural gas pipeline that Sasol is selling, the companies said.

Petrochemical firm Sasol said last month it was selling the stake in the Rompco pipeline from Mozambique to South Africa to a consortium of investors including Reatile Group for an initial amount of R4.15bn.

But that deal was subject to pre-emptive rights on the shares held by existing shareholders iGas, a subsidiary of South Africa’s Central Energy Fund, and Companhia Moçambicana de Gasoduto (CMG), a subsidiary of Mozambique’s Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos.

iGas and CMG will now increase their stakes in Rompco to 40% each from their current level of 25%. Sasol, which is trying to shed assets to pay off debt, will reduce its shareholding from 50% to 20%.

The transaction will be fully funded from past and future dividends generated by the 865-kilometre pipeline, the Central Energy Fund and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) said in a joint statement.

“Having both governments as majority shareholders of the cross-border pipeline is strategic, since the pipeline is the single source of gas to the South African market,” ENH chief executive Estêvão Pale said.

Sasol said in a statement: “We can confirm that Sasol has received pre-emptive rights notices and will now review the notices. We believe that the successful partners will add significant value to this important regional energy asset.”

POWEROPTIMAL, a frontrunner in innovative sustainable energy and demand management solutions, has partnered with the South African subsidiary of Swedish global appliance giant Electrolux, to bring cost-effective, sustainable solar photovoltaic (PV) water heating solutions to the South African market.

This exclusive partnership will see the PowerOptimal’s Elon solar PV water heating technology sold alongside Electrolux’s well established Kwikot Superline electric water heaters (geysers). With deployment of the PowerOptimal Elon range, a customer can add solar capability to most standard electric geysers, without the need for an inverter or battery. It is the most straightforward and most convenient means to take advantage of solar and traditional power in an existing solution.

“We are very pleased to announce our partnership with PowerOptimal. The company’s sustainable energy solutions align perfectly with our global commitment to sustainability, which is to shape living for the better”, states Mark Moyce, National Sales & Marketing Director at Electrolux South Africa. “By including the Elon into our range of water heating solutions, we are offering developers, builders and all users of geysers a means to take advantage of the abundant solar resource we have in this country at a fraction of the cost.”

According to both parties the partnership makes perfect sense, as the organisations are an excellent cultural fit, the technologies integrate seamlessly, and the technical excellence from both are providing a superior technology solution designed to support and grow mass adoption of sustainable energy.

The innovative PowerOptimal Elon range enables direct connection of solar PV panels to standard electric geysers. It requires no inverter and no batteries, is cost-effective, offers a long lifespan and requires almost no maintenance, making it one of the lowest cost per unit of energy (kWh) solutions for water heating available on the market today.

“We are honoured to partner with Electrolux. The company’s market coverage, quality standards, and market-leading customer service make them the perfect partner for our Elon solution,” states Richard Fearon, CEO at PowerOptimal. “Through this exclusive partnership, all PowerOptimal water heating solutions will be recommended and exclusively sold by Electrolux in South Africa. Together we are looking forward to leveraging the technical capabilities of both companies to bring sustainable energy to a larger market of people, previously inhibited by the sheer cost of solar PV technology.”

PowerOptimal’s Elon range solution can run entirely off the grid, or with grid AC power as backup. In addition, it can be used by property developers for conformance to SANS 10400-XA’s Regulation XA2, which requires that at least 50% of the annual water heating requirement for all new buildings shall be from a source other than grid electricity.