South Africa’s Path to Overcoming the Energy Crisis: Progress and Challenges
South Africa has endured about 15 years of loadshedding by this point, brought about by increased energy demand on ageing, poorly maintained grid infrastructure, and unstable generation capacity.
However, in recent years, great strides have been made in South Africa’s efforts to rectify the situation.
For example, there have been significant policy improvements that have allowed for much more private investment into renewable energy generation. As a result, many major industrial energy consumers, such as steel mills and mines, have built their own solar farms and substantially reduced the strain on the national grid.
There has also been improved management of Eskom’s power plants to ensure proper maintenance and minimise breakdowns. This has been achieved alongside concerted efforts to root out corruption in the energy sector and restore order after years of State Capture. These things appear to be working, since the country has managed to go more than 200 days without any loadshedding whatsoever.
Here are some other things that are shaping the way South Africa is navigating its own energy crisis:
Embracing a Just Energy Transition (JET)
The JET is a key strategic endeavour embraced by the government, Eskom, and the private sector that aims to transition South Africa away from its 82.8% reliance on coal-fired power to renewable energy sources instead.
Currently, only about 8.8% of South Africa’s electricity is produced from renewables, such as solar and wind. However, this is set to substantially increase over the next few years as more and more renewable electricity plants come online.
Creating More Grid Capacity
One of the greatest challenges facing the expansion and transition of South Africa’s electricity supply is the grid bottleneck. Most of South Africa’s coal-fired power plants were built in Mpumalanga, where the coalfields are. As such, a concentration of grid connections were built in the area too.
However, most of the renewable energy plants are being planned for the Northern Cape, where there is an abundance of space, wind, and sun. Grid connections in the region are sparse, however, and so significant investment is required to expand the transmission infrastructure.
Exploring Alternatives
While coal-fired power is still expected to provide baseload for the forseeable future, there is a lot of excitement around the potential for the development of green hydrogen production capacity.
Huge amounts of money have been spent on developing major green hydrogen projects along the coast. However, these massive projects are some years away from becoming reality.
Similarly, there is much interest and investment made into developing natural gas as a key energy source. This too will take years to realise.
Although South Africa seems to be finding its way out of the energy crisis, the grid remains unstable for now. To do your part in reducing grid strain and lower your operational costs, contact Energy Management Solutions – the experts at energy efficiency.