News24.com | New record for renewable projects as 'exceptionally difficult' winter of load shedding looms

More than 1 300 MW of renewable energy projects were registered in March.

• A total of 31 renewable energy projects, with a collective capacity of 1 308MW, were registered in March.
• The total capacity registered in March alone is up more than 800% from the 134 projects registered in 2021.
• The number of private projects registered with Nersa skyrocketed following regulatory reforms and escalating load shedding.
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As much as 1 308MW of new solar and wind projects were registered with the national energy regulator in March. That's roughly three-quarters of all the projects registered in 2022 and a new monthly record.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa last week released its latest data set on registered projects. Government last year removed the licensing requirement for generation projects as part of its efforts to resolve the ongoing power crisis. But the projects still have to be registered.

Since July, when the announcement was made, the amount of registrations have skyrocketed.

The 1 308MW registered in March alone is up more than 800% from the 134 projects registered in 2021. By comparison, February's registered projects were up more than 700% than the total registered in 2021.  

Gaylor Montmasson-Clair, the facilitator of the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan, noted that in the first quarter of 2023, nearly 2 500MW of renewable energy projects had been registered by private companies. That's two stages of load shedding, or nearly as much as the capacity from the 25 preferred bidders announced for Bid Window 5 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme.

Nersa's dataset shows that there are seven wind projects that account for the bulk of new capacity – 1 058.2MW.

There is one co-generation project (solar and wind) registered by Illovo South Africa in KwaZulu-Natal, which has a capacity of 24.7MW. The remaining projects are all solar (226MW).

Apart from regulatory reform unlocking this new renewable energy potential, better pricing for renewables and efforts to decarbonise operations and energy security are other factors driving the projects, Montmasson-Clair said.

South Africa is battling an ongoing energy crisis. While the state of disaster was lifted by the government last week – after it was determined that the relevant ministers dealing with the crisis did not require additional or extraordinary powers. Government was also facing a legal challenge, which has now fallen away since the state of disaster fell away.

Load shedding continues, however, and Eskom on Wednesday reintroduced Stage 6 load shedding.

Unplanned breakdowns on Wednesday afternoon stood at 16 772MW. While planned maintenance meant 5 807 MW were out of service.

Eskom noted that an increase in demand following the long weekend and the reopening of schools put "additional strain" on the power generation system.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa on Monday warned of a tough winter ahead, given higher stages of load shedding, EWN reported.

"I'll be brutally honest. It's going to be an exceptionally difficult winter. We know that in summer conditions, the deficit is 6 000 megawatts. When we go into winter, the peak can go up to 37 000MW. But at the current rate of trips and failures, it's going to be an exceptionally difficult winter," he told EWN.