Our New Leadership Must Put Power into the Hands of All South Africans

Our New Leadership Must Put Power into the Hands of All South Africans

At the SOLA Group we often talk about creating South African solutions to South African problems. We’re proud of our sixteen-year history of delivering innovative clean energy projects, often against the grain of prevailing energy policy or industry norms.

But we also recognize that we are a part of a system of public and private institutions. Of large and small energy users. Of big and small businesses. Of Eskom, the National Energy Regulator, and an array of municipal grid operators.

It’s why we believe South Africa’s future lies with a strong electricity grid that connects the best of the public and private sectors, to deliver reliable, low cost, and sustainable energy to our economy. It’s why we value our partnerships with Eskom, who have implemented the wheeling process that allows us to sell power from generators in the interior of the country to businesses on the east and west coasts. It’s also why we see our clients as primary actors in solving load shedding, by committing to buying clean energy from the new renewable energy generators and that we connect to the grid.

A new government comes to power in South Africa just weeks after the passing of the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill by the National Council of Provinces. Through the establishment of an independent Transmission System Operator (TSO), the Bill creates a vehicle for the modernisation and evolution of the electricity grid, free of the inherent conflict of having generation and transmission under the same Eskom umbrella.

With a TSO fully focussed on making the grid a world-class public asset, a new generation of generators, aggregators and electricity traders can innovate and compete on the level playing field that it creates. The end goal is a diversified, reliable and sustainable generation mix that supercharges our economy.

We believe this future will be realized, but we also know that the concepts contained in the Bill were first raised twenty-six years ago in the white paper released by the Department of Minerals and Energy. It’s taken a quarter of a century of policy reversals, load-shedding, economic destruction and nuclear-detours for us to reach this point. South Africans must now hold our new government to the path.

We intend to do so at SOLA, but we’re also not waiting for the ideal electricity market to materialize before we start implementing solutions for South African businesses. The electricity market rules still require substantial work, and to-date only two companies, Amazon and Tronox, have actually purchased large volumes of renewable electricity from the grid, from a supplier other than Eskom.

That’s why we took matters into our own hands last year and decided to start building a large solar wheeling plant before signing up all of its clients. We left part of the project’s energy unallocated and available so that we could bring flexible, less onerous contracts to businesses that don’t have easy access to ‘wheeled’ power or the economies of scale of our fleet of large generators.

Working within Eskom’s existing frameworks we created a solution that can offer real electricity to South African businesses, on fixed timelines, from a project already under construction.We wanted the project to be a stepping stone to the open electricity market envisioned by the Bill: something we could do right now to bring choice and flexibility to buyers, who can experience what it’s like to choose an electricity supplier based on pricing, reliability, and sustainability. We will enhance these benefits further as we integrate battery storage and other generation technologies, and as the TSO begins to create the platform for the future electricity market.

It’s another innovation from a team of South Africans who are excited about the future of the country, and hopefully just one example of how South Africans can start to solve the country’s problems. The Bill can act as a catalyst for many more South African solutions if our new leaders commit to its continued implementation. This in turn could be the spark which creates jobs and meaningful careers for a whole generation of young South Africans.

We started building the first multi-buyer project just over a month after our national rugby team won their fourth World Cup in their own brazen style. It’s a pure coincidence that the project is actually named “Project Springbok”, but it was no coincidence that it took a whole lot of determined South Africans from all walks of life to make it a reality. Let’s now apply that determination as we hold our new leaders to account, and as we continue to innovate and create the new South African electricity system[JS1]