Electricity + Control July 2019

ENERGY MANAGEMENT + ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Distributed generation – a fresh approach to South Africa’s power supply

Seydou Kane, Managing Director, Eaton South Africa

Former Minister of Energy Mr Jeff Radebe, speaking at African Utility Week which was held mid-May at the CapeTown International Convention Centre, acknowledged that energy is a critical input cost in any economy, and unaffordable energy in a mineral energy industrial complex like South Africa can only frustrate the country’s industrialisation programme.

Take Note!

1. Improving grid reliability will improve business continuity, minimise business losses and improve economic growth in the country. 2. A decentralised model is much more flexible and makes it easier to employ renewables in microgrids equipped with more cost- effective battery units. 1 2

S peaking at the CEO’s Forum at the same conference, Seydou Kane, Managing Director, Eaton South Africa, highlighted that while ageing infrastructure and stability of supply remain issues of concern, improving grid reliability will improve business continuity, minimise business losses and improve economic growth in the country. At times like this, alternative energy solutions need to be considered to address the energy crisis and help alleviate the burden on the national grid, especially during peak periods. It was in March this year (2019) that Eskom once more implemented load shedding – at escalating levels. Ageing power stations, unplanned maintenance, and design flaws in the new power stations Medupi and Kusile emerged as the combination of causes that forced the utility into implementing rolling power cuts to give itself enough space to make emergency repairs to the system. Government and Eskom itself have stated that the utility is facing severe financial and structural challenges as well as logistical issues and a skills shortage that affects its ability to detect system faults early enough to prevent further crises. The ramifications of this supply instability go far beyond the inconvenience of missing a live football match or some provisions spoiling in the freezer. Among other impacts, thousands of

small businesses and micro enterprises around the country could be forced to close if electricity disruptions continue. Eskom’s issues will take some time to fix. But for the short- to medium-term, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced – in his February 2019 State of the Nation address – plans to unbundle the state power utility into three separate entities: generation, transmission and distribution. This plan is expected to bring improvements in control and accountability as well as efficiencies and stability in supply. However, unbundling is not the sole panacea for the country’s electricity woes. South Africa’s power market needs a thorough regulatory, technological and economic shift away from the current centralised system. With thousands of kilometres of infrastructure sending electricity to customers across the country, the transmission network loses as much as 40% of generated power through thermal heating. South Africa needs to move towards a decentralised model made up of localised generation-to-distribution nodes with shorter transmission lines. While power losses will still affect these nodes, the losses would be reduced significantly to as little as 15% of generated power. A decentralised model is much more flexible and makes it easier to employ renewables in microgrids equipped with more cost-effective battery units, further alleviating the burden on the

16 Electricity + Control

JULY 2019