- South Africa’s newly formed National Transmission Company (NTCSA) has presented its first Transmission Development Plan (TDP) as an independent entity at the Eskom Academy of Learning in Midrand yesterday.
- The NTCSA was recently unbundled from the country’s state-owned energy utility, Eskom, and started independent operations on 1st July 2024.
- NTCSA interim CEO, Segomoco Scheppers, emphasised that the NTCSA is focused on ensuring non-discriminatory access to the grid and rolling out critical transmission infrastructure for South Africa’s energy security and future demand.
- The NTCSA is planning for total generation capacity to reach 106.5 GW by 2034.
Scheppers announced that the revised 2025 – 2034 TDP projects that 56 GW (previously 53MW) of new generation capacity will be integrated between 2025 and 2034, which will require 14 500 km (previously 14200km) of new transmission lines, along with 210 transformers (previously 170) providing 113000 MVA of capacity (previously 105000 MVA). For this, the capital outlay needed will be R112-billion over the next five years.
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Scheppers explained that the changes from the last TDP are associated with new generation capacity assumptions for the country, as per the Integrated Resource Plan 2023, as well as Eskom’s generation decommissioning strategy, connection applications processes through various Department of Energy and Electricity procurement programmes, application processes for private sector procurement programmes and information obtained through consultations with renewable-energy associations.
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Scheppers added that Eskom and the NTCSA have made notable progress in advancing transmission infrastructure development, with 61 projects being in the execution phase which will unlock about 30 GW of new generation connection capacity by 2030. Of these projects, 31 are currently under construction and will deliver 1 445 km of transmission lines and 16 900 MVA of transformer capacity. This will allow the connection of nearly 16 GW of generation capacity by 2028. The remaining 30 projects, which are also in the execution phase, will enable 40 GW of new generation capacity by 2030. The NTCSA has also identified 47 priority projects that are being accelerated to unlock the connection of 37 GW of new generation capacity by 2033.
Related news: NTCSA appoints transformer suppliers
Eye on behind the meter solar installations
Image credit: NTCSA
System operations chief engineer Paul Davel says the increasing penetration of behind-the-meter solar rooftop generation is changing the behaviour of load in many instances and their installations have rapidly outstripped the installations on the part of contractors. There is an estimated 6141MW of rooftop solar installed to date. He added that the NTCSA is keeping an eye on increasing interest in private connections and the additional 9 MW of solar rooftop PV capacity that is expected to be installed by 2034.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
