With the recent surprise escalation of load shedding to stage 6 – announced at a mere 30 minutes’ notice, and until further notice – yet another record has been broken in the spectacular demise of Eskom, and at the expense of the country, its residents and businesses, and at a time when they can least afford it.
This unfortunately is a clear indication of things to come, both in the short and medium term, procedurally and substantively, in the sense that there will be no reliable schedules or notifications, nor will there even be reliable downtime periods, and why load shedding is very likely to double in the coming 5 years.
What is seen at the end of each year on the graph above, is that there has been increasing jumps in the total amount of GWh shed each year up to 2021. What is alarming is that this graph measures up to the end of September and the amount of load shedding represented in 2022 is already more than double the total of 2021 .
The ageing power station fleet is unlikely to experience an increase in generation efficiency, despite the continual efforts of maintenance and repair that has been taking place over the last 4 years. During the COP 27 Climate Change Conference, Cyril Rhamaphosa unveiled South Africa’s R1.5 Trillion Just Energy Transition Investment Plan that covers the plan for the next 5 years for the energy sector.
Looking at the typical energy use pattern throughout the day, overlaid with solar production below, it is clear that solar energy is generated during the middle of the day, when the sun is shining most. An investment of 1/3rd or R150Bn into battery storage would be far more appropriate if we were to sincerely attempt to keep the lights on in the evenings and mornings with renewable power.
To meet stringent installation quality and compliance requirements, Hohm vets solar installers prior to onboarding them into its marketplace. Recognising that quality assurance is key, Hohm has developed a 3rd party quality control service model via a network of certified Solar Quality Advisors that are allocated to every installation to snag all technical and aesthetic issues, all of which are required to be resolved prior to system commissioning and handover.
Examples of inverter brands that are within this category that Hohm uses are: Sunsynk, Deye, Sungrow and Goodwe. Tier 1 solar panels have a guarantee period of 20 years+, and these brands include: Canadian Solar, Longi and Jinko.