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Success of the REIPPP promises a bright future for
renewable energy in South Africa
by Mike Rycroft, editor
 By the time this goes to print a good number of project developers will be celebrating completion and connection of projects. It will not be long before the full 1415 MW of power allocated in Window 1 will be available as a welcome addition to the grid. We are thus entering a new phase in the
REIPPP, that of operation... (more)
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Basic listing of REIPPP Window 1 developers and details of their projects
A basic listing of all successful successful developers in Window 1 of the South African Department of Energy REIPPP programme is provided here. It is hoped that this will be of benefit to the wider electricity supply industry and suppliers of products, systems and services to this sector ... (more)
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Basic listing of REIPPP Window 2 developers and details of their projects
A basic listing of all successful developers in Window 2 of the South African Department of Energy REIPPP programme is provided here. The 19 projects listed in this Window have a total net capacity of 1040,42 MW... ( more) |
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Basic listing of REIPPP Window 3 developers and details of their projects
As with the SA Department of Energy REIPPP programme, Windows 1 and 2, a basic listing of all the successful developers in Window 3 is provided here. Seventeen projects are listed, giving a total capacity of 1456 MW... ( more) |
"Grid-friendly" utility-scale PV plants
by M Morjaria and D Anichkov, First Solar
Utility-scale PV power plants that support grid stability and reliability are becoming available as PV generation grows to the point of making a significant contribution to the grid, and "grid-friendly" features are clearly needed. Examples are voltage regulation, active power control, ramp-rate control, fault ride-through, frequency control and... ( more) |
Lightning and surge protection for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systemsInformation from DEHN
Self-generated electricity is generally cheaper and provides a high degree of independence of electricity from the grid, and PV systems will become an integral part of electrical installations in the future. However, PV systems are exposed to all types of weather conditions and must withstand these conditions for decades... ( more) |
The South African REIPPP program - focus on details to continue and increase its success
by Ronald Lange
The South African REIPPP program is a success. To continue this success a continuous attention to the details is necessary. Focussing on the PV programs and more on the PV modules, this detail is the formulation of the local content... ( more) |
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PV array oversizing
by Jon Fiorelli and Michael Zuercher-Martinson, Solectria Renewables
PV system designers are tasked with selecting the optimal array-to-Inverter ratio for each inverter in a given project. With falling module prices, project financials have changed in favor of higher ratios. The purpose of this article is to explain why systems are being oversized... ( more) |
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Proposed increase in SA's solar renewable energy will lead to positive spin-offs
by James Ricketts, EES
Apart from diversifying and increasing South Africa's energy resources, the proposed increase in solar renewable energy allocations under the draft integrated resource plan (IRP) revision (Update Report 3013) will boost local socio-economic development in the form of local content manufacturing and local job creation... ( more) |
Battery storage and its impact on Wind O&M
by Jason Deign, Wind Energy Update
An increasing number of onshore wind farms are incorporating battery storage to reduce intermittency. This article looks at how this is impacting operations and maintenance... ( more) |
Lightning and surge protection for wind turbines
Information from DEHN
Due to their vast exposed surface and height, wind turbines are vulnerable to direct lightning strikes. Since the risk of lightning striking a wind turbine increases quadratically with its height, it can be estimated that a multi-megawatt wind turbine will be hit by a direct lightning strike roughly every 12 months... ( more) |
Feed-in tariffs or auctions? Procuring renewable energy supply in South Africa
by Prof. Anton Eberhard, University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business
Feed-in tariffs have been the most widely used support mechanism to encourage the growth of grid-connected renewable energy. But could competitive tenders or auctions offer lower prices while still providing adequate incentives for market entry by renewable energy suppliers?... ( more) |
Risk management and insurance solutions are crucial in financing SA's renewable energy projects
Information from AON
South African contractors and developers in the renewable energy field require specialist risk and insurance broking advice to ensure that this increasingly competitive industry is able to meet its many complex challenges... ( more) |
Power quality challenges in wind farms
by A Leinonen: Merus Power, J Wood K Lass, RWW Engineering
Power quality problems such as continuous power variations, voltage variations, flicker, harmonics, and transients are experienced on transmission lines due to the presence of wind turbines (WT). Stringent interconnection rules, known as grid codes (GC) with which these wind plants have to conform, have been developed... ( more) |
Quality of Supply apportioning for renewable power plants
by Dr. Gerhard Botha, Hennie Mostert and Brandon Peterson, Eskom
Quality of supply (QOS) apportioning is the principle of fairly distributing the impact that customers may have on a network, especially at the point of common coupling (PCC). Due to the complex interaction between loads, generators, utility equipment and the network itself, QOS is a multifaceted phenomenon to manage... ( more) |
Optimal sizing of grid connection transformers and overhead lines for onshore wind farms
by N Thekkumpuram, R Coney, P König, Hatch Goba, and R Ramnarain, Eskom
The capacity factor of a wind farm is usually in the region 20 to 40% and the utilisation of the transmission infrastructure is accordingly low. If a grid connection transformer is rated for the maximum output of a wind facility it will be run at part load for the majority of the time and hence be overrated and overpriced... ( more) |
Integrating a wind farm into a transmission or distribution system
by J Smith and M Handingham, Hatch Goba
Integrating a wind energy facility into a transmission or distribution network not only requires good engineering practices but also conformance to the NERSA grid connection code. This article considers some of the requirements of the grid connection code... ( more) |
Small scale on-grid solar photovoltaic embedded
generation in South Africa
by Paul Tuson
The IRP 2010-30 update states that 9770 MW of solar photovoltaic capacity is planned to be installed in South Africa by 2030 and also estimates that embedded generation residential and commercial PV could reach 22,5 GW by 2030 based on living standards measure 7 households and 5 kWp photovoltaic household installations... ( more) |
Biogas comes of age
by Michael A. Devine, Caterpillar
Digester methane is taking its place as a mainstream renewable fuel. Today's fuel treatment and engine-generator technologies help make biogas a highly attractive and earth-friendly energy source for power generation and heating... ( more) |
Local specifications for small-scale embedded generators
by Dr. Gerhard Botha and Dr. Clinton Carter-Brown, Eskom
The NRS097-2 series of documents, compiled by industry members, forms the basis for the requirements for connection of small-scale embedded generators. This article provides an overview of the existing documents in the NRS097-2 series, as well as recent work in expanding the series of specifications... ( more) |
Investigating empirical evidence to determine when solar PV costs reach grid parity
by Karen v/d Wath, independent carbon and energy management consultant
The energy and environment partnership, Southern and East Africa provided grant funding to collect empirical evidence to investigate when solar PV costs would reach grid parity. This study uncovered that solar PV is already at grid parity and has a 10-year pay-back period of capital costs... ( more) |
The future of grid tied rooftop solar PV in SA
by Francois Retief, IES Energy
Grid tied rooftop solar PV systems have the potential to make a significant contribution to renewable energy programmes in South Africa. Despite this potential, there are at present no real incentives and only a very limited policy in place to enable or promote this technology... ( more) |
Solar PV and storage: a winning team for energy and maximum demand reduction
by Dr. Stuart Fredman, Rhino Energy Solution
Rhino Energy had an engineering brief from a consulting electrical engineer to provide EPC service for the Kia Weltevreden Park flagship dealership. The directive was to have a dealership that was the most sustainable in the portfolio, in SA and worldwide... ( more) |
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