How one top Gauteng estate will avoid stage 4 load-shedding
The sought-after Midstream residential estate in Gauteng has revealed how its Smart Grid Energy Plan will protect residents from load-shedding up to stage 4.
As reported by Daily Investor, Midstream first discussed the R200-million plan with residents at a special Energy Indaba on 7 February 2023.
The main focus will be installing a large 8MVA battery bank that can store excess electricity generated by private solar farms, residential rooftop solar, Eskom’s grid, and, if necessary, Midstream’s fuel-based generators.
This electricity will be dispatched to residents that require it during stage 1 to stage 4 load-shedding.
Midstream’s developers Bondev believe the system can be ready by August 2023, and residents have expressed overwhelming support for its implementation.
According to a detailed plan shared with residents by the Midstream Electrical Supplies (MES) power utility, homeowners won’t have to pay additional levies for the system.
Instead, the developers plan to fund it through upfront financing, which they believe will be paid off over the expected six-year lifespan of the batteries.
Residents will only be charged for the additional consumption of their house during the load-shedding period.
Because the size of the battery bank and its associated cost will depend on the combined load of all residents, the aim is to keep demand low.
Therefore, the tariff will be lower for conservative consumption and higher for more liberal electricity users. The rate will be determined on a 7-day consumption average.
During load-shedding, residents with an average consumption of 1kWh per hour will be charged R1.20 per kWh on top of the regular R2.50 they currently pay per unit of electricity.
Aerial view showing parts of Midstream Estate in Gauteng
Many Midstream homeowners already have rooftop solar systems for a load-shedding backup, but MES said they would also benefit from the all-encompassing system.
Homes with rooftop solar will be able to feed their excess electricity into Midstream’s grid and get paid for it.
The proposed feed-in tariff is 80c/kWh, which MES said was based on an expected rate of between 60-77c/kWh for buying electricity from Midstream’s proposed solar farm.
Cape Town’s metropolitan municipality plans to pay its residents 79c/kWh and a 25c/kWh incentive amount until the middle of 2025.
However, Cape Town requires users to pay a fixed monthly meter reading charge. Residents must also buy more electricity than they sell to receive feed-in credit.
Midstream’s current plan has no such limitation, so homeowners could theoretically profit from selling electricity to MES.
Furthermore, feeding electricity into Cape Town’s grid requires bi-directional meters with an upfront cost of over R10,000.
In Midstream, all homes have been fitted with bi-directional flow meters at no extra cost to owners.
MES also said that homes with backup batteries installed could increase their lifespans by first using Midstream’s battery backup, then falling back to their own.
“You can dramatically extend the life of the battery of your system by drawing down to only (say) 50% rather than 90%.”
Always-on streetlights and lower security costs
In addition, all the estate’s streetlights will continue running during load-shedding.
Gate security houses and security systems will also be powered at a much cheaper cost.
Furthermore, MES argued that the availability of backup power covering up to stage 4 load-shedding could increase the value of Midstream properties.
MES also calculated that this backup power would cost far less than households buying their own systems.
“If stage 3 becomes the norm for the next 24 months and one can keep consumption at 1kW per hour during load-shedding, the additional cost over two years will be R5,000 — far less than any other form of backup energy supply,” MES said.
A major factor that makes Midstream’s initiative possible is that MES manages its own smart grid with metering and control equipment connected via fibre optic cables to all houses.
This allows it to accurately measure the daily consumption of all households and manage the load to protect its grid during high-demand periods.
For example, it can remotely switch off geysers during load-shedding to avoid overloading the battery system.
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