Midstream Estate, a sought-after residential estate in Midrand, is planning to install a large battery bank to store energy from solar plants, Eskom, and, if required, a bank of generators to protect residents against load-shedding.<\/p>\n
The plan to avert load shedding stages 1 to 4 was discussed with Midstream residents at a special Energy Indaba held on 7 February 2023.<\/p>\n
The residents showed their overwhelming support for the ambitious R200 million plan, which the developers believe can be in place by August 2023.<\/p>\n
The plan was proposed by Jan Zeederberg, a founder and director of Bondev, the developer of Midstream estate.<\/p>\n
What makes Midstream unique is that it has a smart grid connected to an 11\/88kV Eskom substation with metering and control equipment using fibre optic communication to all houses.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that falls within Midstream is one grid, managed by Midstream Electrical Supplies (MES),\u201d Zeederberg said.<\/p>\n
It means that Midstream has a single grid it can control, giving it the flexibility needed to address load-shedding.<\/p>\n
Zeederberg explained that the plan started five years ago to see how they could use solar power to supplement energy on the Midstream grid.<\/p>\n
He added that 80% of the controls needed to use solar power to avert load-shedding are already in place in Midstream Estate.<\/p>\n
The next step is to build an 8MVA battery storage system to protect residents against load-shedding up to stage 4.<\/p>\n
The large battery bank will receive energy from solar plants, supplemented during non-load-shedding times by Eskom and, if required, by a bank of generators.<\/p>\n
Zeederberg said they have already received interest from people who want to develop solar farms in Midstream.<\/p>\n
\u201cLand will be made available to them. They will be connected to the grid, and we will have full redundancy for our electricity supply.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will sync with Eskom\u2019s grid before load-shedding kicks in. It will be seamless \u2013 you won\u2019t even know it happened,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce the supply from Eskom falls away, the battery system will take over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The installed MES load management system can also be extended to houses with high consumption to switch off high-power demand devices during load-shedding.<\/p>\n
The immediate plan is to create a reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective electricity supply network within six months that will avert load-shedding up to stage 4.<\/p>\n
This network will be extended in future to protect against higher load-shedding levels and then take the estate completely off the grid.<\/p>\n
\u201cDelivery of the planned battery bank can take place within 16 weeks of order meaning that the project can be in place in 4 to 6 months,\u201d Zeederberg said.<\/p>\n
Residents who participate in the load-shedding protection will only pay according to their consumption during load-shedding.<\/p>\n
The additional payments during load-shedding will cover the cost to finance the purchase of the batteries, generators, and the cost to harvest solar energy.<\/p>\n
It will also finance other associated costs per Eskom\u2019s norm in their larger energy wheeling agreements.<\/p>\n
Bi-directional meters installed by MES will also measure electricity fed into the grid and charge the battery bank. These houses will be compensated accordingly.<\/p>\n
Midstream Estate already has over a thousand houses with roof-top solar connected to the electrical grid.<\/p>\n