- South Africa’s state owned energy utility, Eskom, has made a call for comment on proposed amendments to the grid code.
- This is to ensure a non-discriminatory queueing system for grid access for new generation projects for IPP’s.
- The national grid is constrained in some provinces which limits new generation project development.
- In some areas, feed capacity allocation quotas to Eskom substations have been taken up by IPP’s with private offtakers which has left REIPPPP bidders stranded.
Included in the proposed changes is the creation of a reservation queue that will be governed by the principle of first-ready, first serve basis. The readiness of the project, Eskom says, will be determined by objective criteria, such as grid-connection timelines, project size and technical criteria, including whether a project is able to offer support to the network and/or system operations.
Related: link to Eskom’s latest generation capacity asessment report HERE. The intention of the Generation Connection Capacity Assessment of the 2024 Transmission Network (GCCA – 2024) is to provide stakeholders with an indication of the available capacity for the connection of new generation at the main transmission system (MTS) substations on the Eskom transmission network that may be in service by 2024 based on both.
Under the current system REIPPPP project bidders are not allowed to secure feed in capacity until they are awarded preferred bidder status. The grid access problem was highlighted by the outcome of REIPPPP Bid Window 6, where 23 wind projects totalling over 4MW of capacity were set aside because the grid access capacity allocation had already been taken up by other private off-taker projects in those project locations. Read more
“As a result of the oversubscription and the overall lack of grid capacity in the Cape area, it has become imperative that Eskom conducts additional due diligence in the development of connection quotes to ensure that projects which have demonstrated readiness to connect to the grid are given priority in the allocation of the limited grid capacity in the Cape area,” said Eskom.
The deadline for comments is 9 March 2023.
Link to the request for comment form and document detailing the proposed changes here:
- Grid-Capacity-Allocation-Rules-Feb-2023-Version-1
- Amendment___Dx_Network_Code_Grid_Capacity_Allocation_rules_Mar2022_SAWEA_SAPVIA
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
