Load shedding means controlled load power rotational sharing to avoid the total country's black out due to the fact that demand is more than supply. This is because Eskom has little reserve generation capacity and the loss of more than 1200 MW will always demand load shedding after all other reserves have been exhausted... (more)

Eskom allows some customer classes, including for municipalities (under certain conditions) to opt for voluntary curtailment and reduce load in order to avoid forced load shedding. Given that the generation supply shortfall veryrarely exceeds 20% of demand (stage 0 to stage 3), and most often only a 10% reduction (stage 1 and... (more)

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate, through a series of case studies, that great initiatives are taking place at the local level in the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors. Through the profiling of existing projects, our aim is to encourage more municipalities to walk this path. Analysing existing initiatives... (more)

This paper provides a critical analysis of the legislative development and main business drivers for the current energy supply industry in South Africa, with specific emphasis on private sector participation. This analysis is then benchmarked against best practice for energy supply industry reform in other countries. Parallels are drawn... (more)

An efficient market for electricity at the distribution level cannot be brought about without making fundamental changes to the entire electricity, generation, transmission, and distribution system. It can also not be established without creating facilities for trading in electricity, competition between generating companies and electricity... (more)

Designing small scale embedded generation tariffs  

South Africa is currently experiencing an electricity supply crisis, with peaking plants having to be run outside of peak periods, pumped storage facilities being fully utilised, industrial load curtailment being requested and load-shedding being invoked more and more regularly. Customers have responded by investigating, and in many... (more)

This paper presents the methodology, process and high level results to determine energy, demand and revenue impacts of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) penetration in the Namibian environment. A detailed bottom-up engineering model approach was followed, where hourly impacts of PV installation penetration were computed... (more)

Independent power producer procurement: integrating with municipal distributors  

The South African Department of Energy's Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (IPPPP) was established at the end of 2010 as one of the government's urgent interventions to enhance South Africa's power generation capacity. The programme is managed by the IPPP Office, and the primary mandate is to... (more)

Microgrid Shelter: ensuring stable, reliable off-grid load supply in remote locations  

Microgrids are an interesting alternative wherever a stand-alone grid is feasible or even necessary for reasons of infrastructure, security of supply, or geography. Especially in remote locations where human maintenance activities are limited and have high cost impacts, one of the current technological challenges is to have very flexible... (more)

Transformer health assessment: the eThekwini experience  

To successfully convert data into valuable business intelligence is the key in managing the life of what is often the most critical and high valued asset to every electrical utility, the power transformer. With a fleet comprising over 250 transformers ranging from 275 kV to 11 kV feeding directly key customers as well as a distribution... (more)

City Power has identified an increase in the energy loss trends experienced in recent years. The revenue loss equivalent of this increasing trend has reached significant proportions. In order to address this challenge, City Power has launched the revenue recovery programme (RRP) which comprises of a series of initiatives... (more)

Prior to addressing the issue of smartness, the author needs to provide a platform of what smartness really refers to in the context of this paper, namely: true smartness lies on the other side of achieving what seemed unlikely (even maybe impossible at times) not because of a well defined route or abundance of knowledge... (more)

High mast lighting installations are to be found in almost all geographical locations in South Africa. It provides light to areas where either limited electrical reticulation is found or because it makes economic sense to provide lighting in these areas. The typical applications are township/informal settlement lighting or... (more)

Electrification of informal settlements in Johannesburg 

Electrification of informal settlements is aligned to sustainable human settlements priority. Access to electricity will have a substantial positive impact on the quality of life of the recipient communities. The programme will improve revenue collection; reduce electrical and nonelectrical losses, carbon footprint, and security... (more)