The bottleneck holding back renewable energy for South African businesses

DISTRIBUTED or onsite renewable energy generation - commercial and industrial systems installed at factories, mines and other large energy users - is the quiet workhorse of South Africa’s energy transition.

- GRANT BERNDSEN

RENEWABLE energy projects rollout is slowed by a grid-access process, says the author.

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It powers businesses, takes pressure off the grid, cuts costs, reduces reliance on diesel and coal, and strengthens our economy.

These projects usually comprise solar PV, are sized from a few kilowatts to tens of megawatts, often paired with batteries, and are among the fastest, most deliverable parts of the energy transition.

The problem is their rollout is slowed by a grid-access process that treats a 10 megawatt (MW) onsite project the same as a 100 MW utility plant. The result is delays, uncertainty and rising project costs that hold back private investment when we need it most.

It’s important to say: projects do get built, delivering cost savings and better energy stability. The demand and capital are there too, but red tape slows too many when we need to get capacity online. The greatest barrier is that our grid-access process is too slow, too rigid and not built for the size of projects critical to South Africa’s transition.

About a third of our projects waiting for connection are Eskom-connected and the rest, municipal. While more municipal projects are waiting (and get delayed too for other reasons), delays are generally less severe because municipalities do not require a Cost Estimate Letter (CEL) - which is where the main challenge lies.