Most, if not all, political parties contesting the national general elections on May 29, 2024, are finding themselves at the crossroad of energy crisis solutions. There is a lot of empty talk about how much new renewable energy projects has contributed to ending the surge of load shedding, but this is not true.
Renewable energy technology is in its infancy. Let’s give credit where it is due. We are enjoying almost two months of no load shedding because our coal, diesel and nuclear power plants are the main base-load energy sources that are responsible for keeping the lights on.
Yes, renewables remains our government energy policy priority. Unfortunately, the energy generated by renewable energy independent power producers cannot, at this stage, be transmitted to the national grid unless it is coupled with and supported by gas peakers to balance the pulsating energy frequency. Peaker plants are gas turbines or gas engines that burn natural gas.
Yes, the plants are generating solar and wind electricity but, due to the intermittent nature of the energy generated, the energy cannot be transmitted successfully to the national high voltage grid. What does Eskom do? Buy, curtail and dump the energy generated at the gate as a means to maintain grid stability? It will take years before South Africa can successfully integrate low-voltage with high-voltage power within the grid.
Even the Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, in his recent energy action plan media update on Monday, made utterances alluding to this. He said: “Solar energy remains part of the strategy to combat load shedding.” He then qualified his remark, saying: “Eskom’s performance is not necessarily because of the performance of the renewable energy projects.”
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