Modern Quarrying

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October - November 2015 MODERN QUARRYING 9
Smarter energy grid needed
South Africa would get a much better
return on its energy investments if it
planned a smarter and more flexible
electricity grid, Institute for Security
Studies (ISS) researcher Steve Hedden
believes.
Government’s response to power
shortages and load-shedding has been
a thrust towards more power generation
from coal-fired power plants, oil and gas,
renewables, and potentially a fleet of new
nuclear power stations. “But fixing South
Africa’s energy crisis is not just about gen-
erating more energy,”Hedden says at the
Pretoria launch of a new research paper
called Gridlocked. “It doesn’t make sense
to invest heavily in generation capacity
without also rethinking transmission and
distribution.”
Energy planning in South Africa has
neglected the key element of how elec-
tricity moves from generation to con-
sumption, Hedden maintains.
The Integrated Resource Plan
for Electricity 2010–2030 (IRP 2010),
adopted in March 2011, did not address
the grid at all, though transmission was
included in an IRP update in November
2013. “Grid planning can’t be an after-
thought. It has to be built in from the
start,” he says.
Planning the grid was much easier
when a few big power stations pro-
vided energy mostly to a few big cit-
ies, with one organisation responsible
for the entire system. In South Africa
it was Eskom producing electricity at
coal-fired power plants in Mpumalanga,
the largest net supplier, and delivering
most of it to the economic heartland of
Gauteng, the largest net consumer.
The source of power is shifting. By
2040, Limpopo’s new coal-fired plants will
make it the largest net supplier; and new
gas and renewable capacity will make the
three Cape provinces net producers.
Planners must also now consider
the rise of renewable energy, and the
addition of independent power produc-
ers (IPP). On top of this is small-scale res-
idential generation as frustrated citizens
install their own rooftop solar panels.
“Electricity generation is thus
becoming decentralised and intermit-
tent, and the line between consumer
and producer is blurring, Hedden says.
At the same time, the electricity sector
is transitioning away from a centralised
monopolistic model, with new players
taking on roles and responsibilities his-
torically controlled by Eskom.
The grid used to handle only a
one-way flow of power from producer
to consumer. Now it has to accommo-
date potentially millions of small-scale
producers feeding energy into the grid.
Small-scale residential power genera-
tion from solar panels could account for
30 GW of electricity-generating capacity
in South Africa by 2050, but its contribu-
tion today is retarded by an absence of
clear policies and regulation.
“A more intelligent grid would be
the result of investments in grid effi-
ciency, and better electricity planning,
operations and policies,” Hedden adds.
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