Cape Town - The solar power industry is ready to install 2 000MW of electricity every year for the next five years to help ease the country’s electricity crisis – and has called on the government to increase the amount of renewable energy it will allow private companies to produce for the national grid.
To date, the government has signed up to buy a total of 1 484MW of solar power from producers in three rounds of bidding since November 2011 – but there are many companies waiting in the wings wanting to produce more.
Chief executive of the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (Sapvia) Moeketsi Thobela said on Tuesday: “It’s clear the traditional model of electricity supply in South Africa is in crisis. So let’s accept it as such and not waste the opportunity it presents.”
One of the reasons Eskom has asked the national regulator to re-open the application for price hikes is to cover the estimated R20 billion cost for diesel for two years to fuel the open-cycle gas turbines to help keep the lights on.
Thobela said those renewable energy plants already operating had played a part in reducing Eskom’s use of the expensive turbines.
A CSIR study found that in 2014, solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy had resulted in savings of R3.7bn by reducing the amount of diesel and coal used, and another R1.6bn in avoided load shedding.
It cost Eskom R4.5bn to buy the renewable energy, resulting in a net saving to the country last year of R800m. Thobela said although Eskom had asked the regulator for a 25 percent price hike, consumers were facing a 250 percent cumulative increase in electricity prices since 2008.
While the electricity sector was in crisis, this presented opportunities for the government to take “bold and groundbreaking steps”.
“We’re calling for an increased allocation of renewable energy to address the crisis. With scale, renewable energy can be even more competitive,” he said.
The fourth round of bidding for renewable energy needed to be speeded up, the fifth round started, and the government must increase the amount of megawatts it procured. “Given the amount of generating capacity from renewable energy technologies that is available in the short term, this is a logical step,” Thobela added.
However, the government first needed to fix “deep structural” problems in the electricity sector. One of the most critical was to create an independent transmission system operator – an entity outside of Eskom to run the national grid.
President Jacob Zuma said, in his State of the Nation addresses in 2010 and in 2014, that government would establish an independent system operator, separate from Eskom.
Legislation was prepared in the form of the Independent Services and Market Operator Bill, but this bill is now off the table.
Cape Times