State-owned power utility Eskom hopes to develop a portfolio of up to 150 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels at its sites across South Africa over the next five years in a programme dubbed Ilanga PV.

The utility says these solar PV panels will be installed for self-consumption at all technically suitable power stations and offices, as well as at transmission and distribution substations, which could potentially exceed 1 000 individual installations.

Following the completion of its third solar power installation at its Megawatt Park head-quarters, in Johannesburg, Eskom Renewables Unit senior GM Ayanda Nakedi notes that the solar PV panels on the rooftop of its main con- ference centre entrench the utility’s commit- ment to reduce its carbon footprint and diver-sify its energy mix.

She highlights that Eskom’s vision is not only to diversify its energy resource mix but also to focus strongly on supporting the creation of a local renewables industry in its entire renewable-energy build programme.

“PV is already at grid parity in many supply areas in South Africa for residential and com-mercial customers, which makes electricity from a PV system cheaper than grid power. With the total lifetime cost for each energy unit being about R1/kWh, it will be worthwhile for companies to have PV panels installed, not only to offset their carbon emissions but also to reduce their electricity costs,” Nakedi points out.

She mentions that Eskom has successfully completed five solar PV installations in the last two years, which equates to about 2 MW of PV for self-consumption. These PV instal-lations include Megawatt Park, where PV and concentrated PV panels have been installed; Lethabo power station, situated between Vereeniging and Sasolburg, in the Free State, where solar PV panels have been installed; and Kendal power station, in Witbank, in Mpumalanga.

These projects have resulted in a steep learning curve for Eskom and each project showed significant improvement in execution.

She adds that different technologies and configurations, as well as procurement strate-gies, were used during these installations. This will assist Eskom in developing the most efficient solution for future projects at its various sites and the improved knowledge will be applied to ensure that future projects compare favourably with best practices worldwide and the lowest levelised cost of electricity in South Africa.

In addition, a performance evaluation report is being devel-oped to ascertain the performance levels and ratios of the different projects. Also, a com- parative analysis is being performed and the results will improve Eskom’s understanding of PV technologies and configurations.

“Widespread spatial distribution of PV installations makes the system integration of large amounts of PV more feasible. This increases reliability and predictability of power output,” Nakedi explains.

Through its Integrated Demand-Side Man-agement department, Eskom has implemented a PV pilot programme, which has contracted about 6 MW of capacity. This programme was implemented with the approval of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa and the Department of Energy.