Embattled power utility Eskom says it will intensify its efforts to manage the ongoing power crisis through demand-side energy management (DSM), allowing it to balance supply and demand for electricity better.<\/p>\n
While one obvious solution to dealing with South Africa’s 6,000MW energy shortfall is boosting energy generation (supply), this has proven incredibly 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
This, it said, would be achieved by targeting easy wins like geysers and lightbulbs while also expanding its DSM contracts with industries and businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effective implementation of the DSM programmes could create a win-win situation \u2013 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,\u201d said Eskom chair, Mpho Makwana.<\/p>\n
Eskom said it has already made some strides in a range of DSM initiatives, including energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation, and energy storage.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Some of the group’s larger customers have benefitted from the demand response programmes,<\/strong> which offer incentives to voluntarily reduce their energy consumption during peak demand periods.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Through the DSM programmes, Eskom was able to avert national stage 7 and stage 8 load shedding over the past few weeks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Demand response programmes are agreements between Eskom and participating power users which result in users getting compensation \u2013 such as favourable rates or discounts \u2013 in exchange for cutting power usage when contractually obligated to.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Eskom is now piloting this programme with smaller businesses and energy users, including in the residential sector.<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the power utility, the objective of the pilot is to test, among others, the appropriateness of technologies, market uptake, and the implementation and participation in this sector.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pilot will enable Eskom to evaluate projects on an ongoing basis until the threshold of 50MW has been reached,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Qualifying aggregated load providers (ALPs) that meet the demand response criteria will be compensated to reduce aggregated electricity demand when dispatched via Eskom\u2019s system operator.<\/p>\n The programme carries a minimum load entry level of 1MW and a maximum of 5MW, and those that apply must be the facilitator of the load being controlled through the agreement.<\/p>\n It is unlikely that a typical residential home would meet the load threshold for such a contract, however, bigger residential areas and gated communities like estates could ostensibly sign on, as long as they meet the conditions.<\/p>\n Those contracted with Eskom on the programme currently receive a financial incentive based on actual performance and could potentially be excluded from national load shedding at stages 1 and 2.<\/p>\n
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