Page 4 - AfrElec Week 48 2022

AfrElec POLICY AfrElec

SA boasts 9,0000MW of private

embedded generation projects

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa additional power subject to agreements being
says that the number of private embedded power finalised.
generation projects in the country has increased According to Engineering News, Pama-
to 100, with a total combined capacity of around phosa offered a mixed progress report on the
9,000MW. government’s procurement of additional util-
He confirmed the numbers in a series of ity-scale generation from IPPs, saying that the
written responses to parliamentary questions first three preferred bidders from Bid Window
by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) 5 have signed project agreements and additional
permanent delegate to the National Council of projects were expected to reach this milestone
Provinces from the North West province, Carin within the coming weeks.
Visser, Engineering News reports. However, he did not specify that a total of
Visser’s questions focused on Ramaphosa’s 25 wind and solar projects, representing about
July 25 announcement of the government’s ini- 2,000 MW, were supposed to have progressed to
tiatives to tackle intensifying rolling power out- the construction phase under the round but were
ages (known locally as loadshedding), imposed facing difficulties in reaching financial close,
by the state-owned power utility Eskom. She also according to Engineering News.
asked what progress, if any, had been achieved. “Three projects from the risk mitigation pro-
South Africa has experienced its worst-ever curement programme representing 540MW of
year for rotational power cuts with more than solar photovoltaic and 225MW of battery stor-
155 days affected by the beginning of Novem- age have reached financial close and commenced
ber and the outlook for the coming two years construction,” the president wrote.
remaining bleak, writes Engineering News. According to Ramaphosa, the amount of new
In his responses, Ramaphosa said the amend- generation capacity to be procured through Bid
ment to the Electricity Regulation Act, which Window 6 has been increased from 2,600 MW
allowed generation facilities below 100MW in to 4,200 MW. A request for proposals (RFP) has
size to wheel power across the grid and to sell been released for over 500MW of battery stor-
it to multiple customers without requiring a age, which will be followed by a further RFP for
licence, had created a vibrant market. 3,000MW of gas power.
According to the president, the registration In the meantime, Eskom was also implement-
process with the National Energy Regulator ing a “Generation Recovery Plan” to undertake
of South Africa (NERSA) has also been “sub- intensive maintenance and reduce breakdowns,
stantially simplified” to shorten timeframes focusing on the six power stations that were con-
for project approval. Additionally, the 100MW tributing most significantly to loadshedding.
licensing threshold for such projects was in the However, no reference was made to Eskom’s
process of being lifted entirely. diesel budget having been exhausted, nor to the
“These measures will enable significantly fact that Koeberg nuclear power station was due
more generation capacity to be added to the grid to enter an extended period of maintenance,
from independent power producers (IPPs),” which would result in the plant operating at half
Ramaphosa said, adding that a National Energy capacity for most of 2023, Engineering News
Crisis Committee had been set up to oversee the writes.
implementation of the Eskom and non-Eskom Ramaphosa argued that South Africa’s elec-
initiatives announced in July. tricity sector was undergoing a fundamental
The progress report included the develop- transformation with the unbundling of Eskom
ment by Eskom of a standard offer programme and the introduction of a competitive market to
to purchase available power from existing enable investment.
installations, as well as an emergency generation The president confirmed that the National
programme to procure power at times of peak Transmission Company (NTC), which will act
demand; the recruitment of skilled person- as a system and market operator, had been regis-
nel, with three appointments of former Eskom tered as a first step towards full separation.
employees having been made at power station “This will be followed by the appointment of
manager level for Kendal, Koeberg and Medupi; an independent board for the transmission entity
and the importation of an additional 200MW of and the transfer of the transmission licence from
power from neighbouring countries, with nego- Eskom Holdings to the NTC,” he said.™
tiations under way to secure over 1,000MW of

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 30•November•2022