Independent electricity retailer Earth & Wire has secured land and servitudes, executed the environmental studies and received environmental approval to build a 1 300 MW transmission substation close to Somerset East, in the Eastern Cape.

It plans to start construction on the substation later this year, using a self-build option to ensure the energy from the generation assets can be evacuated to offtakers without facing delays in grid connection, the company says.

To further support the grid, Earth & Wire plans to install large battery storage solutions at its project sites. The first is a 300 MW battery with four to six hours of storage, to be positioned at the substation in the Somerset East region during 2024 to 2026.

Over the past few years, the consumer-focused, renewable energy independent has actively addressed regulatory and transmission obstacles to find the solutions required to generate and deliver affordable clean electricity direct to its customers, the company highlights.

"Earth & Wire is developing a large and growing portfolio of clean energy generation projects with the intention of selling directly to private customers including energy-intensive users, businesses and individual consumers," it notes.

Earth & Wire believes that, as load-shedding continues to negatively impact on the South African economy, the country needs innovative energy supply solutions to urgently support the national demand, the company adds.

“To their credit, [State-owned power utility] Eskom has already made arrangements to ensure that independent power producers can access and wheel across the grid, which is resulting in the first direct private offtake agreements being signed between customers and electricity suppliers,” says Earth & Wire business development executive Thomas Garner.

“As a result, the electricity will be wheeled through the national grid infrastructure directly to their end-users. As soon as municipalities allow wheeling, Earth & Wire will start to serve consumers.”

Further, the business has already developed shovel-ready projects to deliver 1 500 MW within the next two years. These projects should move into construction during this year and be operational from mid to late 2023, adding about 4 300 GWh/y into the national grid by late 2024.

“Earth & Wire is continuing with our plans to develop the balance of its large-scale wind, solar and battery storage solutions across more than 365 000 ha of land assets.”

In keeping with its transmission strategy, the company is planning to build further transmission substations and support the national grid with 400 kV and 765 kV grid strengthening.

The immediate need is for at least another seven 400 kV substations in areas of the Free State, the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape with related 400 kV and 765 kV overhead lines, it says.

“Earth & Wire is focused on overcoming the regulatory and infrastructure hurdles to provide a secure, affordable source of clean electricity for our customers,” the company says.