Durban - Energy experts have welcomed the news that the government wants to ramp up more renewable energy projects to add more megawatts to the grid to help reduce load shedding.
Experts have also described renewable energy as the most cost effective and quick solution to rolling blackouts.
Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the government was ramping up renewable energy projects in the country, adding that this would help add more megawatts to the grid. He said his department was working on plans to expand the grid to be able to accommodate renewable projects.
“We are doing everything possible to make sure that we ramp up the renewable energy share of the mix as part of the Integrated Resource Plan. The transmission is going to be the important part of the work that we are doing,” said Ramokgopa.
The recent increase in load shedding was due to more planned maintenance, he added.
Energy expert, Professor Wikus van Niekerk of Stellenbosch University, said he welcomed the news but hoped the government would follow through on this plan.
“Sometimes we find that the minister of electricity says things and they don’t happen. However, this undoubtedly is the way to go as there is simply no other way to generate more capacity in the next five years for the grid than through renewable energy. This includes solar energy and wind power.”
Van Niekerk added that it was important to work with Independent Power
Producers (IPPs) as they were producing more renewable energy. “The private sector is producing the most renewable energy and it’s good news that the government is working with the IPPs to secure more capacity for the grid.
“There has been more load shedding recently, and not all of it is because of planned maintenance, we have units being lost due to unplanned breakdowns and that is why we are seeing more load shedding.”
Energy expert Chris Yelland also welcomed the news that the government plans to ramp up more renewable energy projects. “This is undoubtedly the best solution to add more capacity to the grid. It’s of no cost to the government, no cost to the fiscus and is the quickest solution.
“The fact is with renewable energy it can be implemented as quickly as within six to 12 months, which includes rooftop solar panels and wind power. If we look at the IPP Programme, more capacity will be added to the grid in two or three years, while if we look at
Medupi and Kusile power stations, they have been under construction for 15 years and are still not operational. I also don’t think nuclear energy is a viable solution as it would cost too much and would take too long.”
Yelland said load shedding happened due to the amount of energy available compared with demand. “The more maintenance we have, the more load shedding we are going to see as units have to be taken off-line for maintenance. I definitely think there will be more load shedding over the next few months as Eskom is increasing the amount of maintenance over the summer months.”
Craig Morkel, chairperson of the Gas Economy Leadership Team at Saoga (SA Oil & Gas Alliance), said there was a need for renewable energy, but also coal, nuclear and gas electricity generation within an environmentally responsible manner.
“We anticipate that the draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity, that will be released in September, would set out the government’s new energy mix until at least 2030, including the implementation of the Energy Action Plan to deal with load shedding on the basis of recommendations by the National Electricity Crisis Committee (Neccom) and other energy industry stakeholders.”
Morkel added that the new IRP should include gas to power (GTP) that could support morning and evening peak demand when renewable energy levels drop too low to fill the gap left by Eskom’s under-performing coal fleet. “More GTP could also support the further introduction of RE by playing a balancing role as sunlight and wind speed is inherently unstable.”