Power utility Eskom says roughly 53GW of new extra era capability, significantly from renewable energy sources, can be required for the following 10 years to guarantee energy safety within the nation.
It says the brand new extra energy contains the present deficit of between 4 000MW and 6 000MW.
“To accommodate this additional capacity, and on the assumption that obstacles to the implementation of the rollout plan are removed, the transmission infrastructure would need to be augmented by approximately 14 200km of extra high voltage lines and 170 transformers by 2032,” it provides in an announcement issued on Friday.
“This is a significant revision of the TDP (Transmission Development Plan) 2021, which based its assumptions for new generation capacity on the Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 (IRP2019), which proposed around 30GW of new capacity by 2030.”
The energy utility says given uncertainty in the long run and that the IRP is at present being up to date, it’s inserting a powerful deal with the implementation of tasks over the following 5 years.
It additional notes that the evaluation reveals a requirement of about 2 890km of additional excessive voltage strains and 60 transformers to the worth of R72.2 billion by FY2027.
“This requires that some challenges beyond Eskom’s full control, such as the lead time to obtain servitudes, among other relevant authorisations, as well as the resource capacity in the country, be urgently addressed.”
Speaking on the TDP Public Forum on Thursday, Eskom’s managing director for transmission Segomoco Scheppers famous that the revised plan considers the deterioration of the energy availability issue (EAF) of the Eskom fleet, which was a key consider drafting IRP2019.
Scheppers says the extra era capability necessities additionally take Eskom’s 2035 Corporate Strategy into consideration and considers connection purposes obtained from varied procurement programmes by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE). He says purposes from non-DMRE integration programmes and enter from a number of renewable energy associations are included.
Eskom says accommodating this elevated era capability implies that a dependable and enough transmission system is required to combine and dispatch the brand new capability to the load centres throughout the nation.
“The next five years are very critical for security of supply. If the TDP 2022 requirements to deliver an adequate transmission network capacity by 2027 are to be met, a significant investment of R72.2 billion will be required to expand and strengthen the transmission grid over the next five years,” notes Scheppers.
“Of this amount, R50.8 billion is required for new capacity expansion projects to meet the reliability requirements, connection of new generation capacity and loads, as well as to acquire servitudes.”
He says an extra R21.4 billion is needed to refurbish the prevailing asset base and procurement of manufacturing tools.
Energy skilled and co-director of the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST) Professor Mark Swilling tells Moneyweb that Eskom’s TDP projection is on the right track. “We need 5GW per annum, so for 10 years this is spot on.”
He says that though implementation can be completed by the non-public sector that “all Eskom has to do is ensure that the grid can handle this. It can do that”.
However, noting his concern relating to the method, Swilling says the DMRE’s persistent discussions about coal and nuclear sources is worrying, as a result of it reveals that the division is just not aligned to the TDP.
Nondumiso Lehutso is a Moneyweb intern.
