Private power companies leasing land from Eskom to provide 2,000MW of renewable electricity

[Hanno Labuschagne]

Private power companies leasing land from Eskom to provide 2,000MW of renewable electricity

Eskom has signed leasing contracts with four renewable energy companies to build new renewable energy facilities on land owned by the power utility.

The four companies — HDF Energy SA, Red Rocket SA, Sola Group and Mainstream Renewable Power Developments SA — are expected to be connected to the national grid within 24 to 36 months and contribute some 2000MW to the grid.

[SANews]

 

[SilverCode]

“We have responded to the call by President Cyril Ramaphosa to come up with ambitious, bold and urgent responses to the energy crisis,” said De Ruyter.

At least someone is responding to the call, because our useless incompetent Energy Minister - you know, the person who is supposed to be in charge of these sorts of things - certainly isn't doing jack sh|t

 

[Gordon_R]

At least someone is responding to the call, because our useless incompetent Energy Minister - you know, the person who is supposed to be in charge of these sorts of things - certainly isn't doing jack sh|t

It's nothing personal. None of the previous Energy Ministers did anything useful:

Minister of Energy
Minister Term President
The Hon. Dipuo Peters MP 2009 2013 Zuma (I)
The Hon. Ben Martins MP 2013 2014
The Hon. Tina Joemat-Pettersson MP 2014 2017 Zuma (II)
The Hon. Mmamoloko Kubayi MP 2017 2017
The Hon. David Mahlobo MP 2017 2018
The Hon. Jeff Radebe MP 2018 2019 Ramaphosa

 

[Danie_V]

So much quicker than building a coal power station! What's the bet being private they get built on time without corruption....

 

[Lupus]

So roughly 600MW

 

[wingnut771]

So roughly 600MW

for half the day.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

De Ruyter basically doing Mantashe's job. I wonder if this is in addition to the IPP programme or not.

 

[wingnut771]

De Ruyter basically doing Mantashe's job. I wonder if this is in addition to the IPP programme or not.

IMHO, De Ruyter can do this because the grid infrastructure is already there. Different story if we want more grid capacity in the NC where solar should be as I've heard that is already at peak capacity.

 

[AntennaMan]

So roughly 600MW

They really need to stop listing peak capacity when speaking about renewables.

 

[kota]

a step in the right direction, but 2000MW is nowhere near enough though, that's just 2 stages of load shedding, not counting the electricity demand that will also have increased in the next 24-36 months.

 

[wingnut771]

a step in the right direction, but 2000MW is nowhere near enough though, that's just 2 stages of load shedding, not counting the electricity demand that will also have increased in the next 24-36 months.

Is that from all the smart cities and bullet trains or the extremely cheap prices?

 

[kota]

Is that from all the smart cities and bullet trains or the extremely cheap prices?

well things are rough this year economically, and probably will be for the next year as well, but as the economic situation improves, an expanding economy will generally results in higher energy consumption.
Even if we say for argument sake, nothing improves economically and things stays negative, peak demands in the evening is not really going to be lower unless most people change to solar geysers, gas stoves etc...
If we look at the eskom breakdown trajectory, it is just getting worse, our plants are simply getting older, so it is more logical that the plants will experience more breakdown in the next 24-36 months.
So looking at how many times we had stage 2/4/6 load shedding this year, while this is a welcoming step, but unfortunately the 2000MW in the next 24-36 months alone will probably means we will still be sitting with stage 2/4 load shedding in 24-36 months time.

If our economic situation gets better, then load shedding will probably be worse if we only introduce an additional 2000MW alone.

 

[wingnut771]

well things are rough this year economically, and probably will be for the next year as well, but as the economic situation improves, an expanding economy will generally results in higher energy consumption.
Even if we say for argument sake, nothing improves economically and things stays negative, peak demands in the evening is not really going to be lower unless most people change to solar geysers, gas stoves etc...
If we look at the eskom breakdown trajectory, it is just getting worse, our plants are simply getting older, so it is more logical that the plants will experience more breakdown in the next 24-36 months.
So looking at how many times we had stage 2/4/6 load shedding this year, while this is a welcoming step, but unfortunately the 2000MW in the next 24-36 months alone will probably means we will still be sitting with stage 2/4 load shedding in 24-36 months time.

If our economic situation gets better, then load shedding will probably be worse if we only introduce an additional 2000MW alone.

Therefore wrecking the economy further. Add double digit electricity price increases every year will just add fuel to the fire. Anyone who believes our economy will ever grow again while the ANC are running things are being delusional imho.

We have been on a one way trajectory for a while now, even before covid, and that is down hill.

BTW, Ireland is experiencing 9% growth at the moment. Us, probably around 0% if not negative, and it's been around 0% for at least the last 5 years.

 

[Lupus]

for half the day.

Yup we may get 4 hours of peak maybe

 

[Lupus]

They really need to stop listing peak capacity when speaking about renewables.

Yup they do, but the peak looks better and those anti nukes can go but look they built a 2GW renewable solution. Instead of a possibility of 2GW

 

[Lupus]

a step in the right direction, but 2000MW is nowhere near enough though, that's just 2 stages of load shedding, not counting the electricity demand that will also have increased in the next 24-36 months.

Uhmm don't look at the peak, it's like pmpo on speakers, we could hit 2GW but more then likely it'll be 600MW

 

[kota]

Therefore wrecking the economy further. Add double digit electricity price increases every year will just add fuel to the fire. Anyone who believes our economy will ever grow again while the ANC are running things are being delusional imho.

We have been on a one way trajectory for a while now, even before covid, and that is down hill.

BTW, Ireland is experiencing 9% growth at the moment. Us, probably around 0% if not negative, and it's been around 0% for at least the last 5 years.
View attachment 1401077

I never said anything about the 32% increase is a good thing, only said that a 2000MW additional to the grid was a good first step, so not sure where that comes from, if your point is that 32% increase will prohibit growth, yes I agree, but it doesn't mean growth will simply turn negative because of the increase. Energy price is one part of the business overhead, so no doubt that an increase there will prohibits growth, but it should not kill growth completely, it's impact will be flattening of growth slopes.
According to the graph below, economy grew a little in recent years up till covid, albeit the slope is not impressive whatsoever, and before anyone misunderstands, I personally does not support ANC nor do I think they are good for the country, this growth in the graph is most likely just the result that more activities in the economy occurred (maybe due to advance in technology, more people starting businesses etc...). And if we think about it, it makes sense that there are more activities in the economy when compared to a decade ago, doesn't mean that everyone are richer, just that there are more activities. Of course, we can question how much we can trust stats SA etc... and people are free to choose where they get their information, but just remember that one can always skew data to reflect their views, so the credibility question can be raised for all stats providers, and hence the debate should be based on some sort of official release, otherwise, everyone will just find some data online that aligns with their views and the discussion gets nowhere.

Not sure how Ireland relates to the discussion so I will ignore that part.
My point was just that 2000MW is a good first step, but since it only deduct 2 stages of load shedding, it is nowhere near enough (especially if economy does improve in 24-36 months time), even if economy does not improve by then, it is still no where enough since a household don't really use less electricity unless you change to gas stove, solar geysers etc... Combine that with the fact that our plants will just get older and prone and breakdown will only become more frequent. As I type this reply, just received a msg that stage 2 is going to begin again, so if we are lucky, this 2000MW alone will probably just put us back to where we are today (or slightly better) in 24-36 months time.

 

[kota]

Uhmm don't look at the peak, it's like pmpo on speakers, we could hit 2GW but more then likely it'll be 600MW

Fair comment, I just meant it as our basic electricity consumption like cooking, geysers, appliances etc so probably should have phrase it as something like basic electricity demands won't fall.

 

[wingnut771]

I never said anything about the 32% increase is a good thing, only said that a 2000MW additional to the grid was a good first step, so not sure where that comes from, if your point is that 32% increase will prohibit growth, yes I agree, but it doesn't mean growth will simply turn negative because of the increase. Energy price is one part of the business overhead, so no doubt that an increase there will prohibits growth, but it should not kill growth completely, it's impact will be flattening of growth slopes.
According to the graph below, economy grew a little in recent years up till covid, albeit the slope is not impressive whatsoever, and before anyone misunderstands, I personally does not support ANC nor do I think they are good for the country, this growth in the graph is most likely just the result that more activities in the economy occurred (maybe due to advance in technology, more people starting businesses etc...). And if we think about it, it makes sense that there are more activities in the economy when compared to a decade ago, doesn't mean that everyone are richer, just that there are more activities. Of course, we can question how much we can trust stats SA etc... and people are free to choose where they get their information, but just remember that one can always skew data to reflect their views, so the credibility question can be raised for all stats providers, and hence the debate should be based on some sort of official release, otherwise, everyone will just find some data online that aligns with their views and the discussion gets nowhere.
View attachment 1401095
Not sure how Ireland relates to the discussion so I will ignore that part.
My point was just that 2000MW is a good first step, but since it only deduct 2 stages of load shedding, it is nowhere near enough (especially if economy does improve in 24-36 months time), even if economy does not improve by then, it is still no where enough since you don't really use less electricity in the even unless you change to gas stove, solar geysers etc... Combine that with the fact that our plants will just get older and prone and breakdown will only become more frequent. As I type this reply, just received a msg that stage 2 is going to begin again, so if we are lucky, this 2000MW alone will probably just put us back to where we are today in 24-36 months time.

What they are not telling you is that this is "up to" 2000MW variable up and down off on renewable energy MW and will not help anything really and is all pie in the sky stuff at the moment. Just makes good headlines. Like I said in another thread, good luck keeping the panels clean in an area with coal mines, and building wind farms in an area not conducive for good wind stats just so they can connect to an existing grid.

This will change nothing imho. Also this is still years away. They should have done this 10 years ago, and what I mean by "done this" is to upgrade the grid in the solar and wind rich areas of the country, and build gas pipelines to the concentrated areas of Mpumalanga where all the coal mines and power stations are to make use of the established grid there and modify the old retired power stations into CCGT peaker plants.

Instead, we have dumb as **** politicians making deals to rent eskom land to fund projects in the wrong areas.

 

[Pak Fa Fui]

4 companies, 500mw each
How much capital do they need to invest and how long till they are profitable