The Cape Town regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to introduce higher peak-hour feed-in tariffs for electricity produced from renewable energy sources,

Chamber director Albert Schuitmaker had highlighted in a letter to Nersa, that this would provide an alternative to the tons of imported diesel Eskom was using to run is open-cycle gas-turbines to generate electricity “at considerable cost” during peak hours.

“We believe that a schedule of higher peak-hour feed-in tariffs would give extra encouragement to the development of small hydro-electricity schemes, which can produce power on demand,” he commented in a statement.

Further, he suggested that it could also encourage municipalities to store and make use of methane gas from its landfill sites and sewage works to produce power during evening peak-demand periods.

“The existing feed-in schedule recognises this energy source, but we believe that a special peak-hour feed-in tariff would encourage municipalities to store methane for use during peak hours. Power produced at this time would compete with the very expensive electricity produced by the diesel-fuelled gas turbines. This should give Eskom scope to pay a higher feed-in tariff and make power production from methane an even more viable operation,” stated Schuitmaker.

He added that by burning methane, quantities of this greenhouse gas would also be removed from the atmosphere.

Schuitmaker welcomed the new renewable-energy feed-in tariffs (Refit) that were announced by Nersa at the end of March, saying that this was a positive step that would create some “real challenges” for the private sector.

However, he noted that alternate energy sources such as wind and solar power were generally not available during evening peak periods.

The Refit was expected to stimulate large-scale investment in renewable energy in South Africa.

Nersa had set a R1,25/kWh tariff for wind energy, 94c/kWh for small-scale hydropower, 90c/kWh for landfill gas and R2,10/kWh for concentrated solar with a storage capacity of more than six hours.

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