Cape Town’s electricity wheeling pilot, launched in response to the ongoing issue of loadshedding, is reportedly progressing steadily, with a milestone being the impending start of a significant rooftop solar PV project in the coming weeks.
Wheeling, in this context, involves generating power at one location and then transmitting it through the grid infrastructure, owned by entities like Eskom or the City of Cape Town, to various end-users, such as mines or shopping centres.
Also read: Power on the move: 15 suppliers authorised to begin wheeling electricity
The City of Cape Town announced its pilot programme in June, with 15 companies approved to participate. These companies will supply electricity to 40 commercial consumers through the city’s grid.
According to News24, a project by Redefine Properties is estimated to contribute 8.8 gigawatt-hours to the grid annually, with power being transported to Kenilworth Centre, Blue Route Mall in the southern suburbs of Cape Town and office buildings in the central business district.
Although the distribution centre already relies on solar PV installations for a portion of its energy needs, there is ample space on the rooftop, covering over 27 000 square metres – an area comparable to three rugby fields.
The total cost of the plant is estimated at around R65 million, with an additional R21 million allocated for upgrading the City of Cape Town’s grid infrastructure. The overall capital expenditure will amount to approximately R86 million.
While Redefine’s project adheres to the traditional wheeling model, involving a bilateral agreement between the power producer and the buyer, Vodacom, a mobile operator, has entered into a virtual wheeling agreement with Eskom.
Virtual wheeling departs from the traditional one-to-one relationship by enabling many-to-many connections between buyers and multiple independent power producers. Vodacom’s virtual wheeling deal with Eskom follows a successful pilot and testing phase conducted last year.
According to News24, the company thinks other private sector organisations will be able to use the blueprint they developed in collaboration with Eskom.
With 15 000 distributed low-voltage sites across the country linked to 168 municipalities, Vodacom had faced complexities hindering its access to large-scale renewable energy from independent power producers.
The virtual wheeling solution now empowers Vodacom to contract with various independent power producers to meet its energy needs. In its initial phase, it aims to transition approximately 30% of Vodacom SA’s power demand to renewable sources.
Sitho Mdlalose, the managing director of Vodacom South Africa, stressed the company’s commitment to exploring supplementary solutions.
CEO Shameel Joosub added, ‘Converting our existing fossil fuel-based electricity supplies directly to on-site renewables is limited by technical constraints that are difficult to scale. We explored a traditional wheeling option, but this had numerous limitations, which we believed could be overcome by reimagining the problem and using technology to solve the issue.’
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Picture: Nuno Marques / Unsplash