- In an addendum to Eskom’s Generation Connection Capacity Assessment of the 2025 Transmission Network (GCCA – 2025) published this week, additional feed in capacity has been added to the Western and Eastern Cape provinces through their curtailment programme.
- Eskom previously announced in the GCCA -2025, published in October 2023, that the two provinces along with the Northern Cape had run out of transmission capacity and were unable to accommodate new generation projects.
The intention of the GCCA –2025 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 2025 based on both.
Related news: What is curtailment? An electricity market expert explains
Eskom previously announced that as per the GCCA 2025, parts of the transmission network located within the most favourable areas for wind generation such as the Eastern Cape and Western Cape have no capacity, as all of the capacity has been depleted from previous bid window rounds and private off-takers.
The new document therefore serves as an addendum to the GCCA 2025 published in October 2023 for the purpose of indicating additional capacity that has been made available in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape under curtailment.
“By accepting a reasonable share of no more than 10% of curtailment, 3 470 MW of additional wind generation can be connected to the grid almost immediately, with 2 680 MW in the Western Cape and 790 MW in the Eastern Cape,” the Addendum states.
Link to the full GCCA 2025 Addendum HERE to find out exact additional feed-in capacity allocations per sub-station in each province.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
1 Comment
This is all good news, however managing frequent curtailment can be nightmare not only for an IPP but also for Eskom SBO. According to the PPA’s it will still be the IPP that will need to notify SBO of each and every curtailment event within a certain timeframe, if not no curtailment will be paid. Thereafter after IPP’s still need to submit all required documentation within the PPA prescribed period. This will become a nightmare for the SBO to handle.
Bidders should rather be told upfront that they will be subjected to a possible 10% curtailment, and have to allow for that within their tariff which will be fixed, however when less curtailment is required, IPP’s get paid a lower sliding scale tariff.