Page 11 - AfrElec Week 25 2022

AfrElec GRID AfrElec

Little grid capacity exists

in SA areas with highest

wind, solar potential

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s electricity utility Eskom has tight, an eastern province, Mpumalanga, has
warned that transmission constraints could slow about 6.5GW of grid supply area capacity.
the introduction of new renewables capacity to “Because most of the coal stations in the prov-
the national grid. ince are directly connected to the transmission
It said 32GW of capacity is available to inde- system, there is no distribution infrastructure,
pendent power producers (IPPs), but they must which would have to be developed to bring the
be willing to build projects out of the country’s electricity produced by the renewables genera-
best wind and solar regions, Mining Weekly tors back to the substations that are connected
reported on June 17, citing findings of a new to the transmission grid,” he said, as quoted by
Eskom survey. Mining Weekly.
Most renewables investors have targeted the About 80% of Africa’s most industrialised
Northern, Western and Eastern Cape provinces, economy’s electricity is generated through age-
where solar and wind potential is greater than in ing and inefficient coal facilities. The country is
the six other provinces. encouraging more investment into renewable
The publication quoted a recent survey of sources.
members of the country’s renewables associa- Apart from Mpumalanga, more grid capacity
tions which indicated that wind and solar pro- is available in KwaZulu-Natal (6 GW), Gauteng
jects with a combined capacity of 64GW are (4.5 GW) Free State (4.1 GW), the North West
being considered for development, but 57GW province (3.5 GW) and Limpopo (2.5 GW).
of that potential is proposed for development in “However,” Mining Weekly reports, “the
a region where there is only 5GW of residual grid survey of IPPs pointed to a material mismatch
capacity available. between preferred project sites and available
The Generation Connection Capacity grid capacity, which had led Eskom to conclude
Assessment shows, for instance, that the North- that only 19GW of the 32GW of available grid
ern Cape is saturated, while the Western and capacity was likely to be taken up by utility-scale
Eastern Cape have less than 3.5GW available. renewables investors in the near term.”
The figure grows to 5GW because of a decision There is therefore a need, Marais said, for
to halt production from open-cycle gas turbines more collaboration between the renewables sec-
in favour of cleaner generation. tor and the utility for them to explore ways to
Eskom’s strategic grid planning manager, unlock available capacity.™
Ronald Marais, said while the Cape region is

Week 25 23•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11