When global telecommunications giant
Virtual wheeling is seen by
This pioneering concept allows
Virtual wheeling allows
Energy crisis
In
According to Kastelic, in the past four years alone, Vodacom South Africa spent
It is universally recognised that climate change poses an unparalleled challenge to humanity, its effects being experienced across the globe with a particularly harsh impact on developing nations. While wealthier countries have historically been the major contributors to GHG emissions, the responsibility for addressing climate change is a collective one, says Kastelic.
He points out that South Africa’s adoption of transformative technologies to tackle its energy woes has been sluggish. While mechanisms like electricity wheeling have existed, structural barriers have restricted private sector participation, leaving many enterprises on the sidelines. Legacy constraints, compounded by administrative hurdles, have stymied progress, limiting the potential benefits of renewable energy integration.
Traditional electricity wheeling, with a few exceptions, involves a single buyer (a private company), partnering with an independent power producer (IPP) to indirectly supply a single site with power, usually generated from renewable sources, Kastelic explains. This legacy approach requires the buyer to be indirectly connected to the IPP’s location through existing electrical infrastructure (the grid).
“This has several challenges, especially for businesses with complex operating environments,” he says. “In Vodacom’s case, our desire to participate in wheeling has been hindered by the complexity of our South African operating environment that includes over 15,000 distributed low-voltage sites located across the country within 168 municipalities.”
Yet, there is a glimmer of hope brought to the market with a new “technologically-enabled” solution. According to Kastelic,
“This solution enables the private sector to actively participate in solving the energy crisis by indirectly funding the development of renewable power, which is added to the national grid, all without impacting Eskom’s weak balance sheet,” says Kastelic. “This is a technological innovation that every business in the country should be actively exploring which, if scaled properly, could significantly reduce or even eliminate loadshedding in
Virtual Wheeling
Kastelic believes that Vodacom-Eskom innovation is set to revolutionise energy management in
“In our case, we will partner with renewable IPPs, who will feed the generated power into the grid. The IPP and our sites will be metered and the metered data will feed into the virtual wheeling platform which we have built using our subsidiary Mezzanine. The Vodacom Energy Management System collects various consumption data points across a period, feeding this information to the Virtual Wheeling Platform. As long as the generation is lower or equal to the aggregated consumption,
Crucially, Kastelic points out, implementing this solution did not require any amendments to existing electricity supply agreements and it does not impact the municipalities in any way.
While the benefits of virtual wheeling are manifold, challenges persist, notably regarding Eskom’s refund mechanisms. The requirement for municipalities to be in good standing poses a logistical hurdle, necessitating measures to safeguard electricity income and ensure stability.
Virtual wheeling represents a key step towards achieving own decarbonisation targets for
However, concerns remain regarding the commercial viability of virtual wheeling, particularly amidst potential Eskom tariff fluctuations. Yet, ongoing testing and investment aims to address these uncertainties, ensuring the sustainability of this innovative approach.
Way forward
Beyond addressing immediate energy crises such as load shedding, virtual wheeling catalyses a broader shift towards renewable energy adoption. As the nation grapples with diesel dependency, the potential for green hydrogen as a sustainable alternative emerges, says Kastelic. Purpose-driven entities like
In conclusion, virtual wheeling epitomises the fusion of technological innovation and environmental stewardship, heralding a new era in energy management. As
©2024 bne IntelliNews
, source