Renewable-energy projects could contribute significantly to minimising power cuts as they have the ability to contribute positively to grid stability, Eskom National Control Centre manager Al’louise van Deventer said at the sixty-fourth Association of Municipal Electricity Distributors convention.

Although the extent of renewable energy’s contribution to the grid would only become evident over time, the projects would have decreased the constraint on traditional power generation methods.

“Load-shedding is brought about by grid instability where demand becomes higher than supply, and when this happens, power cuts are initiated to try to stabilise the grid,” she explained.

Van Deventer pointed out that the security of the national power grid was of fundamental importance to Eskom, and, as a result, initiatives such as embarking on renewable energy projects are of importance to the utility.

“We are still in the early stages of incorporating the power generated through both our wind farms and solar plant projects, but the idea is for stability to be achieved between supply and demand. Renewable energy would assist us in achieving this mandate,” she indicated.

South Africa experienced its first load-shedding in six years on March 6, and Van Deventer explained that the decision to cut off electricity on that day came as a result of the heavy rain experienced during that period. Eskom instituted 14 hours of load-shedding across the country on that day.

She said that, although South African citizens failed to understand the reason behind load-shedding, the impact of resisting it would mean a shutdown of electricity across the country for two weeks.

Owing to this, Eskom continued to urge stakeholders to seek ways in which they could decrease the amount of electricity they consumed.

City Power GM Stuart Webb said during the convention that, having realised the challenge that Eskom was faced with, it had implemented short- to long-term plans that would decrease the negative effects of load-shedding when it occurred.

As City Power was responsible for the supply of electricity in Johannesburg, Webb said that alternative interventions to increase the availability of power on the Johannesburg grid became critical.

“We have a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Kelvin power station, which commenced in 2001, that we are still committed to. This has helped us supply electricity to Johannesburg,” he said.

Webb added that City Power also had three gas turbines that were used to generate electricity as an alternative to Eskom’s supply.

Meanwhile, enterprise software supplier Ventyx industry solutions executive Hennie Nel highlighted that municipalities and large companies could ensure higher performance of their transmission and distribution networks by using its asset health management programme.

“The programme allows companies to gather data which would indicate where and why the company is consuming a lot of electricity,” he said.

Nel stressed that making use of such programmes would not only identify the problem but also give an indication of how the operation of the assets could be improved to ensure that costs and electricity use are decreased.