By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom is set to intensify its Demand Side Management (DSM) interventions to manage supply and demand of electricity.
As much as one obvious solution to dealing with 6,000MW energy shortfall is boosting energy generation (supply), this has proven difficult for Eskom. Generation units keep tripping or failing, and the grid is not stable enough for the group to do the necessary maintenance it needs.
On top of this, design flaws and critical failures have taken several key units offline completely, removing over 3,000MW from the grid for at least another year.
The other solution to balancing the grid is to tackle the demand side of the equation – finding ways to force or incentivise power users to cut their use or use electricity more efficiently.
Speaking at the Demand Side Management Indaba on Monday, Eskom laid out some of its plans to deal with this and try to curb 1,500MW of demand.
This, it said, would be achieved by targeting easy wins like geysers and lightbulbs while also expanding its DSM contracts with industries and businesses.
“The effective implementation of the DSM programmes could create a win-win situation – reducing pressure on the power system and enabling consumers to realise cost savings by being more energy conscious and reducing their consumption without affecting business productivity or quality of life,” said Eskom chair, Mpho Makwana.
Eskom said it has already made some strides in a range of DSM initiatives, including energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation, and energy storage.
“The organisation has been driving energy efficiency programmes and piloted energy-saving initiatives such as switching from traditional incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps.
“The organisation continues to drive the ‘Use electricity smartly’ campaign, which is aimed at empowering South Africans with the necessary information to reduce electricity usage during the evening peak period of 17h00 to 21h00,” it said.
Some of the group’s larger customers have benefitted from the demand response programmes, which offer incentives to voluntarily reduce their energy consumption during peak demand periods.
Eskom uses this mechanism to minimise the stages of load shedding or avert the implementation of load shedding where possible, and it is often described as load curtailment.
Through the DSM programmes, Eskom was able to avert national stage 7 and stage 8 load shedding over the past few weeks.
While the group had shed between 6,000MW and 7,000MW in a few days, it could keep load shedding schedules at stage 6 by only shedding 6,000MW from the grid and reducing the balance through load curtailment.
Demand response programmes are agreements between Eskom and participating power users which result in users getting compensation – such as favourable rates or discounts – in exchange for cutting power usage when contractually obligated to.
These times are determined by the system operator, and typically hit during peaks, or when unexpected or unplanned outages occur and demand needs to be reduced to stabilise the grid.
Eskom currently uses the system with industrial users where qualifying groups on the programme are contracted annually with Eskom (via an agreement). This has been in effect since 2010.
Meanwhile ministers of electricity and public enterprises Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and Pravin Gordhan, who are fused in a power struggle over policies to end load shedding, did not show up at the inaugural National Demand Side Management Indaba.
Both ministers were caught up with ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) engagements following its meeting at the weekend, where the electricity crisis dominated discussions.
Gordhan was scheduled to speak on the new DSM programme and energy policy, while Ramokgopa was to address delegates on the National Energy Crisis Committee’s energy plan.
Their absence comes as an apparent turf war over Eskom powers hots up, and the ANC puts pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa to manage a power battle between three ministers overseeing the country’s energy sector – Gordhan, Ramokgopa and Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe.
Since his appointment to the newly formed ministry of electricity nearly two months ago, Ramokgopa’s ministerial authorities and power procurement powers have remained blurred.