Eskom acting group CEO Calib Cassim said the power utility has launched a national demand-side management initiative which could save some 1.5GW of energy for the grid.

Cassim was addressing the National Demand Side Management Indaba on Monday.

On Sunday evening alone, demand exceeded Eskom’s capacity availability by at least 3.9GW. The deficit can reach more than 5GW during afternoon peaks.

Demand-side management is seen as a tool that can help the power utility to reduce load shedding.

“Eskom needs to focus on the supply in terms of our own plants, as well as getting … more capacity from an IPP (independent power producers] perspective. But while we are looking at supply, let’s not forget the importance of demand-side management to close the gap in terms of the capacity shortfall.

“Eskom has launched its national demand management initiative. We are aiming to achieve a capacity from this initiative of just under 1.5GW… We think and we know that the potential is much greater.

“At the end of the day, there’s only one objective for South Africa: stop load shedding as quickly as possible. But we need to do it in a way that ensures that we don’t compromise the integrity of the grid,” Cassim said.

Opportunities

Delving deeper into the initiative, Eskom’s head of distribution, Monde Bala, said the power utility has identified several opportunities which may make the 1.5GW aim a reality.

“We believe that there are quite a significant footprint of the traditional geysers that present an opportunity for further savings at a residential level. We believe that in terms of public lighting and street lighting there’s further opportunity to do public lighting in a manner that is energy efficient. The building and buildings codes … we are trying to press the process so that when … you do get approved, you get approved with energy efficiency in mind.

“Over and above that, we are aware that there’s a significant number of rooftop solar PV that has already been installed which we could potentially tap into. So we’re looking at that as opportunity. We have applications that we are currently processing totalling in excess of 100MW. That 100MW is one machine of the open-cycle gas turbine, so if we can get that, it would make a difference,” he said.