Johannesburg local government and City Power want to buy electricity from private producers to curb load-shedding

mylesillidge

mylesillidge

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Johannesburg launches short-term private power tender

Johannesburg, South Africa's economic hub and its richest city, is seeking electricity supply from private generators to reduce the amount of scheduled power outages.

The local government and City Power issued a request for short-term power purchase agreements of as long as 36 months, according to a statement.

[Bloomberg]
 
SilverCode said:
And the ping-pong-ing of which political party control JHB
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Yup, that's thanks to the people believing ActionSA would actually do anything. I mean the guy dropped us in 2019.
 
Messugga said:
Who will make the investment based on a 36 month contract? Nuts.
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Ja these solutions are expensive and dated in decades, not months.

So these mega solutions are priced accordingly. Not sure what they think will happen in 36 months, but it sure won't be the end to Eskom’s problems.
 
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BlackStatic said:
Ja these solutions are expensive and dated in decades, not months.

So these mega solutions are priced accordingly. Not sure what they think will happen in 36 months, but it sure won't be the end to Eskom’s problems.
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Whoever builds it won't be able to finance it properly either. Not on a 3 year agreement unless their business plan speaks to huge costs per kWh produced.
 
Messugga said:
Whoever builds it won't be able to finance it properly either. Not on a 3 year agreement unless their business plan speaks to huge costs per kWh produced.
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That also, take liquid metal batteries, revolutionary, awesome, mooooooooerse waiting list, SA not the only one wanting alternate energy right now. (thanks Putin)
 
CoJ / CityPower should make it simpler, fast track process, pay better for grid feed by home solar.

Most of us don't bother as the process is too much effort.
 
Lupus said:
Our grid is already unstable
www.abc.net.au

As household solar stresses the grid, WA and South Australia will have the power to turn it off

Authorities are moving to gain more control over rooftop solar panels amid a ballooning number of installations that are threatening to overload the grid at certain times.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
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The "solar will make the grid unstable" scare story was mostly made up by the fossil fuel lobby groups. If you read that article you quoted they will be able to turn off the customer when the load gets high.

The other thing to do is to adjust how much gets paid for different times of the day. If we get to the point where pushing back middle of the day starts to pay almost nothing but the evening peak pays a lot there becomes a point where its worth getting extra batteries just to push back then instead. That plus cut offs are all perfectly reasonable and there is no reason the average customer can not be expected to comply if they want to push back.

Get the numbers right and the customer will finance it. Eskom doesn't have to spend a cent. Capitalism they way its supposed to work.
 
elp said:
The "solar will make the grid unstable" scare story was mostly made up by the fossil fuel lobby groups. If you read that article you quoted they will be able to turn off the customer when the load gets high.

The other thing to do is to adjust how much gets paid for different times of the day. If we get to the point where pushing back middle of the day starts to pay almost nothing but the evening peak pays a lot there becomes a point where its worth getting extra batteries just to push back then instead. That plus cut offs are all perfectly reasonable and there is no reason the average customer can not be expected to comply if they want to push back.

Get the numbers right and the customer will finance it. Eskom doesn't have to spend a cent. Capitalism they way its supposed to work.
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You're so cute... Believing that the fossil fuel lobby group is against solar and wind, when in fact they are big supporters of it, mainly as they are still needed for wind and solar. Think about it, nuclear would kill them off, solar and wind still require them for backup purposes, still requires them for the manufacturing process of those items.
The grid unstability isn't a myth it's legit, especially around peak times, as there is excess sun and not enough users, during the day power isn't as needed as it is between 5am and 10am and 5pm to 10pm. So when you suddenly have homes pushing back into the grid when it's not needed the grid needs to find away to compensate for it somehow.
 
Lupus said:
You're so cute... Believing that the fossil fuel lobby group is against solar and wind, when in fact they are big supporters of it, mainly as they are still needed for wind and solar. Think about it, nuclear would kill them off, solar and wind still require them for backup purposes, still requires them for the manufacturing process of those items.
The grid unstability isn't a myth it's legit, especially around peak times, as there is excess sun and not enough users, during the day power isn't as needed as it is between 5am and 10am and 5pm to 10pm. So when you suddenly have homes pushing back into the grid when it's not needed the grid needs to find away to compensate for it somehow.
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I really think this is the way "things" should go BUT providing there are enough competitive IPP's that are not controlled by Eskom via the grid etc. Power production should have been thrown open 15 years ago but no; greedy ANC & Eksdom.

As to the "grid" I'm sure by now bigger producers have an automatic power factor sensing system that reduces output as demand becomes more distant (requiring power factor reduction rather than tripping). Otherwise evaluate records and set power factors accordingly, provided these can be adjusted easily. On older generation systems they can't; you had to pick one and stick with it, to some extent anyway. Adjusting the power factor required the generator to be "switched off".
 
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