EASE LICENCING RESTRICTIONS ON EMBEDDED GENERATION BELOW 10MW

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The most recent round of load shedding, which has been implemented by Eskom over the past week, has provided further evidence of the power utility’s increasing inability to supply the level of electricity required by South Africa’s households and industries. This phenomenon is likely to increase in severity over the coming years. SAPVIA believes that the private sector, due to its extensive financial capacity and its ability to expeditiously identify and provide for their own power requirements, is well placed to alleviate the current generation capacity challenges. This much is recognised in the recently released Integrated Resource Plan 2019 (IRP 2019), where small-scale embedded generation has been identified as the means of bridging the current electricity supply gap. Photovoltaic generation, which can be quickly deployed, is anticipated to be the key technology behind small-scale embedded generation. SAPVIA believes that up to 2000MW of this small-scale capacity can be added to the energy mix over the next twelve months. While the IRP 2019 has identified small scale generation as the means to bridging the gap, SAPVIA believes that the bureaucracy associated with the licencing and registration of embedded generation facilities will hamper the rapid absorption of this much-needed supply source into the generation mix. While facilities generating less than 1MW only require municipal or Eskom technical sign-off to supply their owners or feed into the grid, facilities above 1MW a still need to undergo the strenuous NERSA licencing process, which can take between 9 months to 1 year to run its course, before the facilities can be commissioned. SAPVIA believes that the cap of 1MW, above which facilities require NERSA licencing, is arbitrary, and has no technical or commercial basis. In most developed power markets, self-generators can develop their own embedded facilities, and they can connect to the grid if they technically meet the relevant grid codes, without any
SAPVIASAPVIA is the representative voice of the solar PV industry in South Africa. Driven by its values of consistency, cohesion and collaboration, the association’s vision is to ensure solar PV is the electricity generation technology of choice in South Africa and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, in support of the country’s socio-economic development targets.  SAPVIA currently has over 170 members, operating across the entire PV value-chain. SAPVIA’s mandate is to: Represent the PV industry towards Government at Provincial and National level, Inform its Members on the latest legislative developments, Anticipate legislation having a potential impact on the sector, Advise key decision-makers on the most adequate policies to develop a sustainable PV market, Mobilise the sector via working groups and workshops to define clear positions on political, technical and economic issues, Promote a higher penetration of the technology, Facilitate business-to-business contacts among industry stakeholders, Support national organisations in achieving their local objectives, Organise conferences where solar electricity has strong potential and requires additional support 

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