Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is amped and raring to go in his bid to move the City off Eskom’s grid. But energy experts are sceptical and have dismissed the plans as a shot in the dark.
Renewable energy from independent power producers (IPP) has been punted as the solution to Eskom’s power failure.
In an effort to procure 300 MW of renewable energy, the City of Cape Town has opened applications for tenders from IPPs. For this to happen, the IPPs will supply 5 - 20 MW of energy, to help reduce the City's reliance on Eskom. This week, the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) announced a 9.61% tariff increase for 2022/23.
Hill-Lewis has vowed to bring down the cost of electricity over time through the City’s IPP procurement project, which was underway. “This project aims to allow the City to purchase electricity from IPPs at a rate far below Eskom’s, and pass this saving on to its customers. The project also aims to end load shedding in Cape Town over time.
“I remain committed to doing what I can to make Cape Town energy secure, as well as ensuring that access to reliable electricity is affordable,” he said.
Independent energy analyst and engineer, Andrew Kenny, didn’t mince his words on the City’s renewable energy plans.
“I believe in the free market and I welcome it in energy. If the DA says they want to buy power from the free market, I welcome that,” he said.
“However, (IPPs) is a useless solution to the problem we’re facing. How are IPPs going to give us dispatchable energy when renewable energy is not dispatchable?”
Kenny said to get electricity when it was most needed there needs to be a constant supply and renewable energy does not guarantee that.
For the City of Cape Town to produce electricity from renewable sources and maintain it, would mean first collecting it and then storing it for later use. Kenny said this was an option made less likely by the costs of batteries used to store electricity.
“Batteries are unbelievably expensive. If the DA thinks renewable energy combined with batteries can source the city, why don’t they try it out in their own homes first and see how far they get?”
He added: “The price of this electricity will be at least 10 times as expensive as Eskom.”
Kenny said solar and wind energy are great for small applications like water heating in a household but lack feasibility when applied to powering a city. “To supply electricity to the national grid, solar and wind are useless and very expensive for useful power,” he said.
“Regardless of the route you take, the final price of electricity increases. You’re going to end up paying far more than what Eskom charges you, making use of renewable energy sources.”
Nuclear physicist Kelvin Kemm said he doesn’t see how the IPP process was possible as Cape Town runs on nuclear power from the Koeberg power station.
“To get off Eskom’s grid would mean cutting off the connection from Eskom completely. That includes cutting the connection to Koeberg,” he said.
“I can’t see how Cape Town can cut Koeberg and the rest of the country’s electricity off from Cape Town’s supply alone,” he added.
“If they’re looking for proper renewable energy in South Africa, good luck to them.”
Kemm said Koeberg’s current generator upgrade would allow it to produce up to 10% more electricity.
“This will give us another 200 MW of guaranteed power.”
Kemm said energy cannot be created out of nothing, only converted from one source to another.
“That’s a fundamental law of physics. When you put electricity into a battery, it can only take so much energy,” he said.
He added: “The energy stored in batteries poses the risk of exploding or dissipating. Renewable energy sources can be a safety hazard.”Kemm said solar and wind energy needs massive renewable systems to power the whole of Cape Town.
“There is no solar at night, and wind we only get in high wind areas. You will also need more power capacity available than what you will use,” he said.
He added: “The mayor wants 300 MW of renewable energy. With wind, you will only get one-third of this capacity and with solar, only a
quarter.”
“Disconnecting from the grid is a pipe dream. How can you detach yourself from the rest of the country and think that this is practical?”
But the urgency of climate change pressure is on the country to begin cutting its ties with fossil fuels and speed the transition to renewable energy.
Solar energy specialist Rein Snoeck Henkemans told website thegreentimes.co.za the national power grid’s dependence on coal, gas and diesel also risks continuously driving the price of electricity higher.
“As consumers and businesses, transitioning to renewable energy sources needs to be a top priority.”
He said the most popular renewable energy alternative in the world, the price of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has continued to fall as its technology has evolved.
For example, estimates from GreenCape show that the average cost of small-scale solar PV installations is less than R1.00 in kilowatts at peak power (kWp).
Mayco member for Energy Beverley van Reenen said the City has shown its commitment to energy security through IPP projects.
“Energy security is one of the great social justice issues of our time. Energy security means businesses succeeding. Energy security means more jobs. Energy security means meaningful economic recovery and growth,” she said.