Many of us are working online from home due to the pandemic and a four-hour power outage can impact your productivity substantially but how do you mitigate this without breaking the bank? Solutions designed to keep wi-fi or ADSL routers powered are available below R1 000 and are simply a plug-and-play 12VDC to DC UPS. These units are roughly the same size as the router and employ Lithium-Ion batteries to store energy from the grid (or solar optional) and automatically switch over to battery back-up when the grid fails. A marginally more expensive version, less than R1 500, will provide 19VDC back-up for a laptop.

5/9/12/19V DC to DC UPS front and rear panel

AC and Solar Portable Power System (SPS)

Should you require 220V back-up for monitors, printers or any other relatively low-demand device, a slightly more expensive unit (around R4 000) can be used as a UPS and will offer longer run-times than the smaller units described above. These units are completely portable, weighing around 4kg, and have multiple inputs, both solar or 220/230VAC, and 220/230 VAC output as well as 3X USB/1X USB QC3 outputs.

Peak power is rated at 1200 Watts with a Lithium-Ion battery capacity of 396Wh, which should run a laptop, inkjet printer, router and LED lamp for 4 hours. Most notably, if the power outage is during sunlight hours, a 100W solar panel can be connected to extend battery capacity.

These two categories of back-up solutions can be considered as being for “personal” use and whilst there is substantial demand for teleworkers to be equipped with these, they also play a role in many other applications, such as keeping CCTV cameras powered and charging all manner of smart devices such as tablets and laptops. The SPS above can run a small TV and decoder or router for 4 hours, so the application is not exclusively telework related but can also help keep loved ones in contact across the globe by maintaining power to laptops and routers during power outages.

Scaling up to devices that offer longer run-times and the ability to accept heavier current loads but are still semi-portable, a popular category is for 1000 – 1500 Watt units, which employ predominantly deep cycle lead-acid batteries. These batteries are comparatively inexpensive compared to Lithium-Ion although substantially larger, heavier (up to 40kg) and have less useable energy due to Depth of Discharge limitations.

Starting at around R8 000, these units generally use inexpensive inverter/chargers and are most often used to back-up TVs, decoders, routers and possibly one or two low Wattage lamps. The inverters automatically detect a grid failure and switch to battery in around 20 milliseconds, thus it is virtually a seamless transition with decoders not having to reboot.

There is also the option to add solar on some models, which can extend the run-time during sunlight hours.

Lead-Acid based PowerCaddy back-up system

PowerHex Plus Portable back-up system

Moving to more ergonomic and modern semi-portable solutions, the PowerHex is based on more sophisticated inverter technology incorporating a robust transformer to deal with electrical surges and spikes. Additionally, the inverter incorporates such features as temperature compensation and control permitting the use of more sophisticated batteries such as AGM-Gel, which have greater cycle life than ordinary lead-acid batteries. This translates into less frequent battery replacement and hence is more cost efficient.

The unit has a steel hexagonal chassis and integrated telescopic trolley handle at the rear to enable easier movement. An LCD front panel shows the important information such as battery charge remaining, electrical load, etc. The chassis door is lockable to secure the internals from children.

A recent development is the option of a Lithium Ion battery to further improve cycle life as well as offering greater depth of discharge. This is known as the PowerHex Plus; it is approximately twice the price of a PowerCaddy but it must be borne in mind that it has double the back-up run-time and a battery that will last 3 to 4 times longer.

3kW Back-up kit showing 2 X AGM-Gel batteries

An integrated back-up system consists of a few primary components: an inverter, a battery charger (which is often integrated into the inverter nowadays) and a battery bank to store and provide the standby energy. There are other items required which we refer to as Balance of System (BOS), which refers to the cabinets, cables, fuses, lightning protection, etc.

The scale of these systems can be as small as 500 Watts (with regard to the maximum current load the inverter can facilitate) up to Megawatt systems in industrial and commercial applications. To make this article relevant to the general public, we will talk in the scale of residential systems, usually from 1kW up to 10kW, however, there are some residential systems much larger.

When referring to battery or storage capacity, it is expressed in kWh (kilo Watt hours) or kW X time = kWh

Thus if you have a 2kW heater, for example, and you ran it for one hour, it would use 2kWh.

It is important to note that if you have a 1kW inverter and you try and draw 2kW through it, it will trip. This is relevant in calculating your electricity usage and in calculating battery bank capacity required. Using the common size 100Ah (delivers current of 1 amp for 100 hours) 12V battery to calculate the kWh, we multiply the voltage (12V) by 100 to get 1200Wh or 1.2kWh.

In making the decision to install a back-up system, you should always consider an upgrade path for adding batteries, as well as possibly adding solar PV panels to the system at a later stage.

Lead-based batteries are not very flexible in terms of expanding, for example, from 4 batteries to 8 batteries beyond approximately the 6 month period. Once the batteries are older than that, the older batteries will tend to decrease the performance of the new, so this is not recommended.

Lithium-Ion, however, is much more flexible allowing you to upgrade your batteries at any time, not to mention all the other benefits of Li-Ion, namely cycle life, physical size, weight, DoD (useable energy) and faster recharge time. Although more expensive, there is an argument that to install a similar quantity of lead batteries, you would need twice the kWh of Li-Ion.

Additionally, Li-Ion is equipped with a Battery Management System (BMS) that offers a complete audit trail of the batteries’ history. This could be relevant when making warranty claims as it could prove that through no fault of the user, the battery failed.

Your supplier should assist you in making this decision, showing expected cycle life and comparative costs per kWh. Ultimately, it will be your decision and it is preferable to make this decision upfront.

Hybrid Kit with Li-Ion batteries and CIGS solar panels

The post Load-shedding is dead! Long-live load-shedding! appeared first on Sinetech.

Renewable energy procured from private generators as part of the department of energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) programme contributed more than a quarter of the peak-time electricity South Africans consumed during the first half of 2020.

This is according to a report on the performance of renewable energy projects compiled by energy regulator Nersa.

This news comes as the availability of Eskom’s fleet deteriorated to just over 60% in the last week of November, according to the latest data published by the state-owned utility. This is partly the result of an increase in plant taken offline for maintenance, but unplanned outages remain very high.

In the week ending 29 November, 18.48% of Eskom’s generation capacity was unavailable due to maintenance and 18.08% due to unplanned breakages.

In the week ending 29 November, 18.48% of Eskom’s generation capacity was unavailable due to maintenance and 18.08% due to unplanned breakages

The average availability factor for the year to date is 65.65%, which is considerably lower than the almost 67% in 2019. The norm is 80% availability, with 10% taken out of service for planned maintenance and 10% for unplanned maintenance.

Eskom’s forecast to 1 March 2021 shows that it is likely to have a consistent supply shortage of more than 1 000MW in all but one week. It indicates that the country could suffer stage-2 load shedding for most of this period.

Clearly helping

While electricity demand in the first half of the year was distorted by the Covid-19 lockdown, renewable energy clearly helps Eskom to limit the use of expensive open-cycle gas turbines or keep it from instituting load shedding during the morning and evening peaks.

According to Nersa, 68 of the contracted 112 projects were in commercial use with a combined generation capacity of 4 283MW. The regulator expects a further nine projects to be in operation by the end of the year, which will increase the total capacity to 5 048MW.

Although the performance of the different technologies is not comparable, it is useful to note that the combined installed REIPPP capacity will by the end of the year exceed the nameplate capacity of Medupi, of 4 764MW.

Nersa reports that non-REIPPP renewable projects, aimed at own use or generation for a specific client, adds a further 823MW to the country’s renewable capacity. It has also approved the registration of small-scale embedded projects with a combined capacity of 72MW. This is mostly solar photovoltaic energy.

Nersa says the increase in renewable generation has resulted in the geographical diversification of power generation. The dependence on coal in the northern parts of the country has been diluted, with renewables spread through the Eastern, Western and Northern Cape, closer to the demand. This means that electricity losses associated with long-distance transmission can be reduced.

Renewable energy will be even better utilised during peak demand periods if the storage capacity is increased, according to Nersa. Currently only six concentrated solar plants have storage capacity, varying between two and nine hours.

Renewable energy will be even better utilised during peak demand periods if the storage capacity is increased

Nersa expects that increased storage capacity will, by 2022, enable renewable energy that is generated when demand is low to be utilised during the peak.

Eskom has in fact embarked on a big storage project.

Nersa reports that Eskom paid independent renewable power producers R14-million in 2019/2020 in terms of the take-or-pay power purchase agreements for energy it was unable to take.

During the first half of 2020, Eskom paid on average R2.23/kWh for renewable energy. Nersa expects this number to come down as projects contracted later at lower tariffs come into operation.

This article was originally published on Moneyweb and is used here with permission

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Those engaged in product manufacture and others in large factories and warehouses are generally using a substantial amount of electricity during daylight hours, which makes them excellent candidates for solar energy. Solar energy officially became the cheapest energy source in the world in 2016, surpassing wind and its fossil fuel counterparts like natural gas; this means solar power will save a manufacturer thousands of Rands over time on electricity costs and provides a hedge against energy price increases, making your company more competitive.

Let’s take a look at why solar is such a good fit for these industries:
• Most concerns operate during sunlight hours, however, with battery technology rapidly decreasing in price, even 24-hour operations can benefit from solar energy created during the day.
• Peak factory / floor energy use and peak power production from the PV solar system will generally coincide or be stored, which means no produced power goes to waste.
• Large-scale commercial solar systems are an even better deal in terms of long-term savings because of the economies of scale inherent in solar power. The cost of energy will decrease the larger the system is.
• If batteries are included in the design, power outages can be seamless and the exorbitant cost of running diesel generators can be obviated.
• Factories are known for having large flat roofs with ample roof space, offering an ideal installation site for solar panels.
• Carbon taxes are definitely a reality in South Africa’s future, thus it would be beneficial to start using renewable energy today.
• The greening of a company is a newsworthy upgrade that sets your business apart from others and offers huge marketing and competitive advantages.
Whether your operation is big or small, solar can reduce your electricity bill.

Case Study

Commercial Building, Gauteng, 60kWp Grid Tie System (image above)
A Grid-Tie PV system was found to be the most ideal solution given the fact that the production profile of the PV system fitted well into the power usage profile of the company. The system generates approximately 90MWh per year and offers a high return on capital while reducing the operational expenditure of the company. This system has saved the client in the region of R750 000 since its installation in 2016. As electricity tariffs increase annually, the gap between the cost of self-generation and Eskom supplied power will increase, thus the sooner you make the move to solar the better.

Connect with Sinetech today through the enquiry form below, call us on 011 886 7874 or write to [email protected]:

The post Reduce operating costs with solar appeared first on Sinetech.

From a social perspective and contrary to how we have had to distance ourselves physically, we have pulled together very well as a people, supporting the indigent, aged and ill members of our society. Many have contributed financially and some have even given of their time to help others, despite risk to themselves.

It is my personal view that the government has performed admirably compared to many other countries and with much fewer resources. Many difficult (and some illogical) decisions have been taken but with a high level of co-opting the numerous stakeholders in, making these decisions even more difficult, as there will always be differing opinions and agendas. In fact, COVID-19 has focused most South Africans on the issues that should always have been primary ie. poverty, job creation and healthcare. We must continue to focus on these concerns and I believe the by-product will address other social ills such as crime, education and the massive economic disparity in our society.

In the renewable energy industry, we have a role to play, most critically in educating the public at large as to the merits of using PV solar or energy storage systems in their homes and businesses. It is a widely-held view that these systems are prohibitively expensive but in fact the reverse is true, as we will illustrate below. The benefits of inexpensive and continuous power are numerous and touch many aspects of our daily lives.

Reason 1 – Back-up for essential loads

An energy storage system is in essence the JoJo tank of the electricity world, using an inverter and batteries to store energy. That energy can be the electricity provided by your municipality or Eskom, or it could be energy that is created by solar panels that you have installed on your roof, or both.

The primary purpose of such a system is to provide back-up power during periods of load-shedding or power outages for any other reason. Ordinarily, during a power outage one would seek to power “essential loads”; these are the electrical circuits that feed devices that are critical to you. Most domestic households focus on alarm system, electric gate/garage, fridge/freezers, some lighting, TV, decoder, router and possibly a microwave oven.

In a post-COVID world, working from home will become much more prolific and thus the continued operation of your computer and wi-fi will be very important to productivity. We are advised by Eskom that load-shedding will resume in May 2020 and will be around for at least the next 18 months. Equally important is the non-interruption of the normal functioning of access and security systems such as electric fence, gates, garage doors, cameras and alarms. Many of these have built-in backup facilities but the batteries are often depleted or damaged and don’t offer adequate backup time. Security will unfortunately become more critical as economic conditions deteriorate, therefore it is vital to ensure seamless power backup for these systems. The cost of these backup solutions start from as little as R1 000 to simply back-up a wi-fi router to tens-of-thousands of Rands for a fully- integrated solution.

It is advisable to consider the future integration of solar as well, but if current budget does not allow currently, ensure that the inverter has hybrid capability so that you can add solar at a later date.

Backup system integrated to DB board

Mobile backup system non-integrated

Reason 2 – Solar as a cost mitigation strategy

For the period 2002 to 2019, electricity increased by a staggering 500% in South Africa and looks set to continue with double-digit increases for the foreseeable future when one includes the Regulatory Clearing Account (RCA). The result is annual increases of between 15% to 20% compounding year on year. The objective of this section is to reduce or at a minimum, control the amount you pay for electricity as a consumer or business. It must be said at this point that all of us should have adopted behavior that is energy conscious and made our homes and businesses as energy efficient as possible by using LED lights and ensuring that when we replace appliances, we seek-out the most energy-efficient units. The following seeks to illustrate how you can take control of your energy future.

We will assume useage of 1 000kWh per month, which is an approximation for middle income households in S.A. Current tariffs for Eskom Direct customers are roughly R1.45/kWh for 0-600kWh and R2.30 for 601kWh onwards, thus 1 000kWh would result in energy charges of R1 790 plus R6.23/ day network capacity charge for 30 days (R187) giving you a total of R1 977 excluding VAT. Municipality provided electricity tariffs will vary from place to place.

The table below (Table 1) shows the effect of the combined increases ie. base tariff and RCA recovery but does not show the Network Capacity Charge. This has been increasing incrementally over the years and whilst it is a relatively small number (around R172 in 2019 moving up to R187 in 2020 for Homepower Standard), it is an increase of almost 10%. There were mumblings about actually lowering tariffs and hiking Network Capacity charge massively, thus reducing the price to poorer communities. Table 1 does not include the RCA percentage for 20/21 and 21/22 as this issue is before court at the moment. Eskom’s claim for variations for additional costs and revenue shortfalls in the preceding years would see a Total tariff increase of 16.5% in 2021 and 2022.

Table 1:

Source: Eskom/NERSA

During daylight hours, the system will reduce or possibly omit usage of grid power. Grid-tie solar does not provide backup power in the event of a power outage as it is dependent on the grid being online to work.

Additionally, many municipalities permit feed-in of surplus energy to the grid offering a credit on the associated account. This would require a specific application for “net metering” over and above the normal compliance documents required to connect to the national grid. Feed-in is advantageous for both domestic and commercial premises as surplus power generated in the example of a commercial instance, will direct energy generated over weekends back into the grid. An existing commercial customer offset their total Network Capacity charge, minimal usage as they were closed and accrued a small credit during the COVID-19 lockdown.

A hybrid system includes the functionality of the grid-tie system with the added benefit of providing a battery bank as a storage mechanism for grid or solar sourced energy. This would provide power to the designated electrical circuits during power outages, at night or on overcast days where solar radiation is minimal.

Intelligence in the hybrid inverter can be configured to direct energy to the electrical circuits of the premises as priority one, recharge the batteries as priority two and feed-in to the grid as priority three. It is also possible to apply “peak-shaving”, an intervention to use the batteries when premises demand and tariffs are high, thus avoiding using grid-power at peak times/tariffs.

Clearly, the purpose of this article is to explore what options we have in terms of continuity of power supply and the cost-effective sourcing of electricity. It is therefore the juncture to explore what the various options cost with regard to the basic solar options described above. Using our 1 000kWh example again, Table 2 illustrates that solar makes sense post-Covid19 primarily due to the fact that interest rates have decreased by 200 basis points. It may therefore be advisable to use your existing mortgage bond to fund solar on your premises in a domestic or commercial instance.

Furthermore, in a commercial case, Section 12 B of the Income Tax Act permits accelerated depreciation of renewable energy assets purchased for cash such as solar plants used in business premises. These assets can be depreciated in Year 1, thus reducing the overall tax burden where this is advantageous. Alternately, there are rental programs available for commercial entities thus treated as OPEX.

Table 2:

Assumptions: Eskom increases Year 2 to 4 = 15%, Year 5 to 8 = 10%, Year 8 to 10= 8%. Includes maintenance, depreciation and interest of prime -1%.

Over a ten-year period you will avoid energy costs of around R125 000 with the benefit of having back-up power. Monthly repayments will be less than for 1 000kWh from Eskom from Day 1 and the savings will become greater over time. Once the system is fully repaid, the 1 000kWh will be at zero cost for at least another 15 years, inverter and battery replacement excluded but solar panels included.

Reason 3 – Solar as an investment

Reason 2 dealt with how you can save on costs and have some control over your electricity provision by funding through mechanisms such as your mortgage bond. Reason 3 focuses on how, if you are fortunate enough to have surplus cash you wish to invest, a solar system can provide an excellent investment. The current return on investment per annum on R100 000 is around 5.5% for property, 6.89% for SATRIX and around 6.25% in a call account. Now, thanks to Eskom’s devastating price increases, you can invest that same R100 000 in a PV solar system (enough for a 5kW grid-tie) and you’re looking at returns of 40.7%. Simply put, there is no other investment that offers this return plus the security of knowing you have electricity.

Municipalities are also starting to permit the “feed-in” of surplus electricity that you might generate thereby giving you a credit on your electricity account. Additionally, with a hybrid system (Solar panels plus batteries) you will have an automatic back-up solution for those annoying power outages.

Naturally, we invariably do not stay in the same house for 20 years or more, however the investment in solar will not necessarily be lost should you move. In first-world countries, solar has become so ubiquitous that buyers often make it a requirement in their buying decision. In California, for instance, every 1kWp of installed solar you have on your home attracts an additional $6 000 in the asking price. It must be stated though, that the State of California offers significant rebates for homeowners who have rooftop solar. Perhaps sometime in the distant future we may be so fortunate.

As illustrated in Reason 4 below, a rebate system may provide additional incentives to homeowners and business owners and create the jobs described below.

Solar vs Eskom: A comparison over 20 years
The graph below takes a conservative view of the potential savings to be had by investing in a grid-tied solar system over a 20-year period. In the scenario below, you could realise savings of R1 921 000:

We have based these calculations on a grid-tie system (no battery) costing R79 000, which comprises polycrystalline panels, grid-tie inverter(s), cabling, mounting and installation. Assumptions include:
• Eskom agreed rate in 2020 of R1.98p/kWh – thereafter 15% per annum escalation.
• Current electricity price of R1.45 for less than 600kWh, and R2.30 above 600kWh.
• Normal household consumption of 1 000kWh pm
• 6.2 Hours of sunlight per day.
• Excludes VAT.

Reason 4 – Job Creation

One of our most significant challenges in S.A. has always been job creation. Post-Covid 19, we will have an even greater challenge as retrenchments and business liquidations increase. Between 3-million and 7-million jobs could be lost depending on how quickly we can contain and ultimately control the virus.

The consequential impact on food security, crime and further health crises in our country are a national emergency which concerns all of us. Our pre-existing financial woes Pre-Covid 19 and the coincident downgrade to junk status by Moodys, and further into junk status by S&P, only served to see more capital flight from S.A.

These are massive macro-economic problems which most of us have very little control over, however they affect all our lives. Most households in South Africa will see a decline in their lifestyle in the coming months and years, so prioritisation of monthly expenses will be an exercise many of us should already have undertaken. The obvious priorities are food, rent/bond, water and electricity and it is with electricity that we believe savings and savvy investments can be made as per Reason 2 and 3 above.

It is refreshing that the incumbent Minister of Minerals & Energy has been prompt in delivering the IRP2019. The plan addresses many issues that are extremely urgent to the very existence of our fiscus. The absence of affordable energy from a domestic and commercial perspective is probably the most pressing non-human issue facing government and, indeed, every South African.

In my view, the IRP does not go far enough with regards to focusing on renewables, however, I accept that there is a social and political perspective which limits radical transformation of the energy sector in the short term. It is however apposite to note that renewables actually deliver more jobs than current coal- and nuclear-powered mechanisms. The emergence of the “green collar worker” on the international stage should be eagerly pursued in South Africa, especially given the proclivity toward technology jobs by our youth today.

Source: Earthlife Africa

Distributed or self-generated energy could go a long way to addressing these challenges by employing solar and battery storage at the domestic, commercial and industrial level. From a jobs perspective, envisage a scenario where micro-enterprises spring up nationally to perform the installation and maintenance of solar systems at the residential level, very similar to how the DSTV installers operate. At the commercial and industrial level, small enterprises can emerge to fulfil these services for factories, shopping centres and any other larger structures. Business can join hands with government to fulfil the re-skilling of coal workers into “green-collar” workers who market, install and maintain the systems in domestic and commercial buildings.

And yet, we do have a bridge to cross in terms of upskilling the youth for these positions and reskilling existing energy workers toward renewables. It must be said though that renewables and fossil fuel energy are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary to each other. It would be impractical to decommission existing power stations in the short term (less than 10 years) and switch to renewables with storage overnight. This would be politically inexpedient and would create yet more unemployment and therefore more social ills. Additionally, technologies, specifically around energy storage, are in their infancy and still quite expensive.

We are therefore in a position where we have the time to plan the phase-over with little impact on the socio-political imperatives. It is critically important though that we start now with the phase-over in order to transform the energy sector to a more efficient and environmentally-friendly industry. In doing so, we can achieve so many of our objectives of making energy affordable, creating jobs and saving our most critical asset, the planet.

Reason 5 – Environmental Issues

Thus far in this article we have ensured continuity of electricity supply, saved on monthly energy costs, put our savings into an asset with incomparable returns, created thousands of jobs, so all that’s left is for us to save the planet.

Sounds like something from a movie, but then again, I think many of us feel like we are starring in a doomsday flick with this global pandemic. The truth is, the world will never be the same again; however, it can be better if we all heed the wake-up call that we have just received. The International Energy Agency estimates that carbon emissions will fall by 8% this year but in order to start reversing climate change, we would have to continue decreasing by 7.6% every year until 2030.

Seems unachievable, as we know that most industries have been shutdown for 6 to 8 weeks across the globe, most vehicles have been stationary, including thousands of airliners, so not something we could do every year. We could however accelerate our migration to renewable energy, electric vehicles, recycle more plastic, paper and water. When we get back to work, although it will possibly look very different to pre-COVID, we should try to not give up the gains we have made from an environmental perspective.

Using our 1 000 kWh per month residential example, a 7.5kw solar system will produce about 12 000kWh a year which will mean around 12 tonnes less of CO2 emissions per year.

In our pursuit to reduce CO2, we concurrently save H2O by moving away from fossil fuels. 95% of our energy is produced by burning coal, heating water and spinning a turbine, simplistically put. To my mind this seems extremely primitive, albeit that the systems that run and manage our grid are highly sophisticated, the core is quite dated science.

Creating energy from coal requires mining effort, processing effort and a myriad of heavy industrial machines to generate electricity. Most concerning is that generating electricity from coal is a water-intensive process and South Africa is challenged with minimal water resources constantly. The table below indicates the volume of water required in making electricity:

Renewables also require some water in their production and operation but it is fractional compared to conventional energy mechanisms. We are seeing a strong shift away from coal-fired power stations globally and in response to that, the larger coal-miners are not investing additional capital in growing their coal assets.

Summary

In closing, the COVID-19 lockdown has been a wake-up call for all of us. Nature is fighting back and humankind must recognize that we have to adapt the way we live on our planet. The way we work, play, eat and travel will change over the coming years in response to COVID-19 and possibly new and more virulent pandemics.

Food security and service delivery are threats we need to be aware of at home, commuting and at work. Many of our barriers and warning systems are electronic so there is an element of security offered by a back-up system. More likely though is the absence of electricity while you are working and staying at home that poses most concern: seamless continuity of power would be welcomed.

No doubt there are a select few who have capitalized on the COVID-19 crisis, but for most of us, it has meant, at best, reduction of salary and for some, total loss of income. If you are fortunate enough to not have suffered any impact on your regular income, now may be the time to gain control of those runaway electricity bills. Access to credit in your existing bond, which is now 2% cheaper, could be a smart move toward solar power.

The investment case will only get stronger as electricity becomes more expensive and this is inevitable. Pensioners are one group of our economy who could benefit from such an investment as it is virtually risk free. Cash that may have been directed towards other asset classes can be used to power your own home and deliver incomparable returns.

The job scenario will require the governments commitment to move toward having a large segment of “green collar” workers. It is imperative though that the mind-set of moving from fossil fuels to renewables is not a mutually-exclusive transition. Coal power, thus coal jobs, will be with us for years to come but we must start the transition on a larger, distributed scale.

Finally, all of the above is irrelevant if we choke our atmosphere with CO2 and use water irresponsibly. As shown above, one household can save 12 tonnes of CO2 going into the atmosphere per year. Imagine the savings on CO2 and water large industry can deliver annually.

The world will change post-COVID, exactly how, we do not fully understand yet. My hope is that we see some of the 5 Reasons in our article adopted to contribute towards improving our financial, social and environmental future.

Article by Chris Rodgers, CEO of Sinetech

The post Five primary reasons why PV solar and standby power make more sense than ever post-COVID appeared first on Sinetech.

South Africa has incredibly lucrative opportunities for renewable energy given the commercial and social imperatives. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a reality and a further opportunity for South Africa. Like all industrial revolutions, the primary driver is commercial demand which is enabled by technological advantages. As a metaphor, commercial demand is the oxygen and electrical energy is the blood of 4IR.

In the South African context, we have multiple challenges that we are facing at the moment, unemployment, crime, crumbling state infrastructure which affect health, education, transport and every other strategic component of an efficient government. At the core of the problem lies a culture of ineptitude and entitlement which has played out in the form of institutionalised corruption.

Notwithstanding this, most South Africans desire a life that is safe and secure in all respects, including personal security and well-being, job security, educational stability and many other aspects that are, in fact, not just desirous, but human rights.

IRP Goals

The energy sector in S.A. and specifically, the electricity industry has a very significant role to play in moving towards the South Africa we all desire. In the mid-2000s we had started to move towards an energy sector which is well-founded and showed great promise albeit that the electricity infrastructure had taken a back seat in the 90s. The REIPPPP projects for utility-scale renewable energy were established in response to the NDP and IRP 2010 with the following goals:
• Job creation
• Social upliftment
• Broadening economic ownership

The program was initially hugely successful and in fact the “bid-window” concept became a best practice for other countries on the same path. Opportunities for Biomass, Solar and Wind energy were at the forefront with a smattering of hydro, given South Africa’s limited water resources. The economic ownership objective was marginal, with many of the primary bidders originating in Europe, Asia and the U.S. There are, however, a few examples of ownership, but nothing significant that would address the ills of the past and truly empower South Africans to the extent that we desire.

The dark clouds of the Zuma-era saw these programs take a backseat to the pursuit of nuclear power stations which, on the face of it, may appear as foolish and self-serving, however, nuclear does have a role to play in SA’s future energy mix. This would not be in the quantum that the Zuma government intended.

Descent into darkness

In the interim, Eskom has declined to an operational and financial disaster, unprecedented in South African history. An excessive staff complement at salary rates that are unsustainable, rampant corruption, a complete dearth of maintenance on an ageing coal-fleet, cable-theft and a culture of non-payment have rendered Eskom wholly inadequate for the consumers of electricity. The knock-on effect has seen many international industrial manufacturers exit S.A., international fund managers shorting Eskom bonds and local businesses struggling to keep trading without electricity. Net result: more job losses, increased crime and a skills brain-drain that we will live to regret in future years.

A rather gloomy picture for all South Africans but being the nation that we are, we tend to always find ways to get things done when times are hard. We are also blessed with great sunshine, thus PV Solar makes a lot of sense.

Whilst the REIPPP program begins to gain momentum again and the IRP2019 has been published, we are definitely heading in the right direction again. But is it too little too late? Certainly if we rely solely on coal as a core component of our energy mix for the long term, we will fall behind our commitments to the Paris Accord on Carbon Emissions, continue to see tariff increases of between 10% to 20% per annum and have greater exposure to power outages due to ageing coal-fired power stations.

The solution lies in in renewable energy of course, but we also need to look toward gas and storage technologies as part of our future energy mix. The great opportunity is in the affordability and rapid deployment of renewables, typically less than five years in the utility scale and at the smaller scale, a matter of months.

Small Scale Embedded Generation

The IRP2019 will allow for Small Scale Embedded Generators (SSEG) to be deployed nationally in an effort to de-centralise electricity generation. There are two segments to this: Sub- 1 Megawatt which requires registration only with the municipality or Eskom for commercial, industrial or residential properties. These “generators”, typically PV solar installations, will be permitted to feed energy into the grid for a credit on the registrant’s electricity account. The second segment addresses installations of between 1MW to 10MW to apply for a licence to commercially produce and feed energy into the national grid against very specific guidelines. In this example, owners of tracts of land that are not arable may, for example, construct solar or wind farms purely for the purposes of generating electricity to be supplied to the grid.

This could be one of the most significant steps forward not only in addressing our energy demands but also addressing wider social issues such as unemployment. I envisage a scenario where micro-enterprises spring up nationally to perform the installation and maintenance of solar systems at the residential level, very similar to how the DSTV installers operate. At the commercial and industrial level. small enterprises can emerge to fulfil these service for factories, shopping centres and any other larger structures.

Are you a consumer of a prosumer?

This scenario will transition the whole of South Africa into a large distributed generator of electricity and many of us into prosumers rather than just consumers. Inevitably, when a resource like electricity is seen as a valuable resource rather than an expensive service, we will all become much more energy savvy and cautious with how we use electricity.

At the utility scale REIPPP level, areas where coal mining has been the historical centre of energy production – and hence where many energy workers reside – could be transformed into renewable solar farms. Mpumalanga, for example, actually enjoys 3% more sunshine than the Northern Cape, paving the way for skills transition of existing coal and power station workers.

A very significant consideration for moving toward renewables is the water demand that alternative generation sources such as coal and nuclear require. In a water-scarce country like South Africa, and especially give current climate change concerns, water is without doubt our greatest concern in the coming years. Every tonne of coal mined requires 250 litres of water and to produce 1 MW of power from a coal-fired power station requires approximately 692 gallons of water. A nuclear power plant uses around 400 gallons of water to produce 1 MW. Renewables such as solar and wind use negligible amounts of water by comparison.

Green collar jobs are growing

It is refreshing that the incumbent Minister of Minerals & Energy has been prompt in delivering the IRP2019. The plan addresses many issues that are extremely urgent to the very existence of our fiscus. The absence of affordable energy from a domestic and commercial perspective is probably the most pressing issue facing government and, indeed, every South African.

In my view, the IRP does not go far enough with regards to focusing on renewables, however, I accept that there is a social and political perspective which limits radical transformation of the energy sector in the short term. It is however apposite to note that renewables actually deliver more jobs than current coal- and nuclear-powered mechanisms. The emergence of the “green collar worker” on the international stage should be eagerly pursued in South Africa, especially given the proclivity toward technology jobs by our youth today.

Source: Earthlife Africa

And yet, we do have a bridge to cross in terms of upskilling the youth for these positions and reskilling existing energy workers toward renewables. It must be said though that renewables and fossil fuel energy are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary to each other. It would be impractical to decommission existing power stations in the short term (less than 10 years) and switch to renewables with storage overnight. This would be politically inexpedient and would create yet more unemployment and therefore more social ills. Similarly, technologies, specifically around energy storage, are in their infancy and still quite expensive.

We are therefore in a position where we have the time to plan the phase-over with little impact on the socio-political imperatives. It is critically important though that we start now with the phase-over in order to transform the energy sector to a more efficient and environmentally friendly industry. In doing so, we can achieve so many of our objectives of making energy affordable, creating jobs and saving our most critical asset, the planet.

Regulation remains a stumbling block to us achieving this as the regulatory framework, legislation and appropriate amendments take time and, in our case, are taking too long. It is absolutely critical that we invoke the appropriate regulations, as failure to do so could be disastrous for the national grid. Sinetech, as a player in the solar and storage arena, is acutely aware of our responsibility in complying with all the local and national regulations when deploying our solutions. Peoples’ lives depend on all energy companies in adhering to the grid-code, failing which, electricity workers could be severely injured or even killed.

The DoE and NERSA are well down the road in formulating the relevant regulations, however, the public participation and legal promulgation are not happening quickly enough. Similarly, the training regimens cannot be defined until the final legislation is passed as it is key in training the green-collar workers.

Eskom split into three divisions

To outline how I see our energy future, all stakeholders need to be taken into account. The stakeholders broadly are Government, Eskom, DoE, Nersa, municipalities, business and the general population of South Africa. Whilst each one of these may have different priorities, there remains two imperatives that apply to all: affordable and available electricity.

The plan to create three different operating entities from the existing Eskom, namely Generation, Transmission and Distribution, definitely has merits as each entity has different objectives and focus areas. Similarly, as independent operating companies, service level agreements and resultant penalties will hold each entity to a high standard. Remuneration of executives and personnel should be based on the delivery performance of their entity against predefined Key Performance Areas and Indicators.

As an example, Generation would look towards electricity production at the lowest cost which inevitably would be renewables over the longer term. No doubt, government would apply certain requirements with regard to job retention as it is in no-one’s interest to see thousands of workers lose their jobs. This would require the reskilling of the existing coal workers into renewable energy workers and to de-commission ageing coal plants simultaneous to retirement or re-employment of the workers in the renewable sector.

Training is the key

In my nirvana state of the energy market, training would be a top priority and will create considerable opportunities both for the institutes that train and the students who receive the training. Within Sinetech, we have a 20-seat training centre where students, young and old, are trained on solar, battery and inverter technology, how it works, how to install it and what regulations require of them. We would like to see more companies offering this and would also like to expand our efforts in this space, as education is fundamental in the new economy.
With the requisite skills, these students can seek employment in what is the fastest growing sector in the world today. The entrepreneurs amongst them can establish their own SME business deploying solar and standby power with the help of entities such as the DTI, IDC or even the World Bank via their International Finance Corporation.

Having spent 30 years of my life in the ICT industry since before the inception of the PC, I have seen how an industry can fulfil so many needs and create so many opportunities, even prior to the connected world we have today. Electricity is a far more ubiquitous need as we all need it more and more, thus the opportunity that exists around 4IR is actually exponentially larger than the advent of the PC, Internet, VOIP and everything else the ICT industry has delivered. The key to embracing the change in how we do business and live our everyday lives is education. Government need to focus on two things if South Africa is to prosper, Education and De-regulation. Everything else will fall into line behind these efforts. Well educated, employed people do not commit crime generally, rather they commit to growing a country that offers quality of life to all its citizens.

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The National Health idea is great one, when the majority of your adult population are contributing to the fiscus. South Africa has 7,6 million taxpayers against an adult population of 35,1 million adults (18 years and older). Only 21% of our potential tax-paying population are contributing to the fiscus and we all know that corporate disinvestment is on the rise, reducing the corporate tax net. Additionally, we are experiencing a dramatic increase in emigration of tax-paying professionals which will inevitably further limit the fiscus. This is a plan conceived out of sheer desperation and we should all be worried about this folly.

Prescribed Assets: How safe is your pension?

Add to this the recent announced intention of us already overburdened tax-payers having to contribute further to “infrastructure development” via “prescribed assets” in our pension or provident contributions. Where will this all end? Based on our most recent experience with the ANC-lead government, literally trillions of Rands have been pilfered or wasted via our SOEs. Why would we sit idly by while they create new and innovative ways to purloin more of our hard-earned money under the veil of some socialist endeavour?

Unlike the character from Sherwood Forest, our Robbing Hoods steal from the working to share with their friends and couldn’t care less about the impoverished. As the saying goes, “the people get the government that they deserve”, that’s how demogracy (sic) works.

A rather gloomy picture without even mentioning commissions of enquiry, violent crime and all the other ills that have befallen us South Africans. It seems the ladders of prosperity are far outnumbered by the snakes of avarice: very soon we will be playing snakes and snakes in a very dark pit.

But, we live in one of the most beautiful and diverse countries on the planet, with some of the happiest people (we dance when we’re happy, sad, ticked-off or anything in between) and we have great sunshine. Most intelligent South Africans abhor corruption, especially as we now see the cost to us all in non-delivery of services, homes, hospitals AND we now are all expected to foot the bill via taxes and other cunning plans of the government of the day. Nothing unites a nation better than a common enemy and our king-pin enemy is corruption! It is now time for the ANC to walk-the-talk.

South Africa is the optimal location for solar energy

On the subject of South African sunshine, and more to the point of this piece, not only does it make us feel good, grow our food etc. it places us in one of the best regions of the world for solar energy. Add to this the millions of hectares of open-space we have, plus all the empty rooves we see from an aeroplane …. wow, do we have blessings or what?

We all know that we have an energy crisis and that Eskom, who provide 95% of our electricity are, for all intents and purposes, no longer a going concern. Everything we do in our daily lives relies on energy, if not within our bodies then in the world in which we live, work, learn and play, using electricity. It is a myth that the restructuring of Eskom will see our national grid stabilise and become profitable within the next 5 years. The end-game will be privatisation; Telkom is the only SOE that has managed to survive. We need to stop fooling ourselves that the state can provide jobs in the current model.

The challenge of political expediency versus business imperatives will not be easily overcome, as the unions will not permit job losses; conversely, Eskom cannot survive without headcount reduction. Additionally, coal-fired power stations have a limited lifespan with carbon taxes, competition from renewable energy and investors turning away from fossil fuels. The largest oil and mining companies are being pushed by big capital to move towards renewables. Billiton, Glencore, Shell, BP are all selling off fossil fuel assets and investing in resources related to renewables, such as Zinc, Copper and, obviously, Lithium.

Saving the planet, creating jobs for our youth

Forward-thinking governments are also making the move or have already made the move away from fossil fuels. South Africa too has made great strides towards a revitalised energy sector with the REIPPP program which has proven to be very successful and contributed to keeping the lights on in the recent past using solar and wind energy. The challenge always being that these technologies do not produce energy 24 hours a day depending on the wind and sunshine. For this reason, it would be foolish to think that we could do away with coal-power in the short term, however, we must start reducing our reliance on fossil fuels in favour of other technologies.

Possibly a phased migration would also serve the political agenda giving us time to re-skill coal workers into renewable workers and relocating them to cleaner, healthier climates to deliver their new skills to solar and wind farms. Furthermore, our exorbitant youth unemployment figures could be reduced by creating jobs in the renewable energy sector – it is a fact that our youth are generally tech savvy and gravitate towards technology jobs.

Will you be able to afford electricity in the future?

But what about the elderly folk, like myself, how do we fit into all of this? It is an abiding truth that our electricity demand and costs are going to continue to increase with more and more mobile and mobility technology solutions proliferating. Our homes are already communicating locations, bringing dinner and the movies to you whenever you need them, becoming our place of work in many instances, reducing our need to travel. Very soon, we will be travelling in electric cars, turning our homes, places of work and shopping malls into filling stations. There is but one proviso to all of this: electricity. Without it, our world as we will know it, will be uninhabitable.

Starting now, we should all be looking to provide some of that electricity for ourselves as it will become so essential. More than that though, investing in solar today while you are still earning could be one of the best investments and retirement plans that you have made. The return will not be based on the markets or the various asset classes that the funds are required to invest in, rather the return will be based on the comparative price of electricity supplied by Eskom at that time.

A R200 000 investment over 10 years will yield the following earnings based on current performance. Best of all, the solar system is the least risky asset as it is totally in your control and adds value to your property upon resale:

Table 1

Some of us cannot afford contributions to RAs but we still have to pay for electricity. It could be workable to take a personal loan and service a portion of the monthly payments with electricity savings. Over the long-term, you will be very glad that you made this sacrifice, as we know that electricity from Eskom will continue to increase by at least 15% per annum in real terms. Our company offers lay-byes to assist those less fortunate to be included in this opportunity.

If you have a roof, you could be a Small-Scale Embedded Generator

It is also heartening to see that the Department of Energy are finally making good progress with the Small-Scale Embedded Generator (SSEG) program. This refers to the smaller, privately-owned solar farms, commercial and residential properties that have surplus solar energy that can be fed into the grid. Many municipalities already have tariffing for this and whilst the credit you may receive is only 25% or so of what you pay for electricity, it is an efficient way of getting a “discount” on your bill for energy that you would otherwise not have used. Typically, during the day most of us are at work thus power usage is comparatively low and it may be that the solar system is providing more than the household needs at that time; this can be “wheeled” into the Eskom grid for a credit.

The alternative to this is to invest in a battery bank which you will use at night or in the morning to reduce your demand on the grid, and to charge those batteries during the day when you have surplus solar electricity. A mixture of the two practices is also possible, where the system has the intelligence to use surplus power to top-up the batteries first and then feed-in to the grid.

What is Peak Shaving?

In some instances, peak-period billing will apply whereby defined peak grid demand times will attract a higher Rand per kilowatt/hour, as shown below.

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When there is a power failure, electricity supply to these appliances is cut off and they stop working. To fix these issues of power outages and unavailability of electricity, the UPS and the inverter were devised. An inverter and a UPS are both used in providing back-up power supply to electronic devices, in the event of an electricity outage.

Their basic function is the same in that they store electricity in a battery when power is available, and provide it to various devices in the event of an electricity outage. However, they both are different in their circuitry, price, functions, etc. All UPSes contain an inverter as well as a battery charger, but not all inverters offer a built-in battery charger, which would then need to be purchased separately.

Basically, electricity flows as either AC (Alternating Current) or DC (Direct Current) to and from various electronic devices. When electricity is available from the mains, an inverter obtains it in the form of AC, to store it in a battery. To do so, the inverter must convert that AC power to DC power, and then store it. When there is a power outage, the power from the battery has to be supplied to various electronic appliances, but it cannot be distributed in the form of DC. So, the inverter converts DC back to AC and supplies it to the gadgets, until the outage ends. Once grid power is restored, the inverter continues to store AC power converted to DC power in its battery for later consumption.

A key difference between an inverter and a UPS is the time taken by them to provide power supply from the batteries in the event of a power failure: an off-line UPS (the standard) switches to battery power within 3 to 8 milliseconds after mains power has been lost. An inverter changes over in anything from 25 to 500 milliseconds. Gadgets which can’t tolerate even this time lag or which may be damaged by being incorrectly shut down, such as a computer or sensitive medical equipment, are paired up with a UPS rather than an inverter, precisely for this reason.

The reason a UPS has a quicker response time is that doesn’t make use of relays and signals, like a standard inverter does, to switch from AC to DC, or vice versa.

Another notable difference between the two, is that true online double-conversion UPSes are credited with regulating and monitoring the fluctuations in flow of electricity. UPSes provide protection against line abnormalities like surges, voltage fluctuation, under voltage, over voltage, spikes and noise. This is the main reason why electronic devices featuring delicate circuitry are backed-up using a UPS, instead of an inverter. UPSes are only intended to provide power for a short window (10 or 20 minutes), enough time to save programs and data and correctly shut down your device. They are not intended to supply power over an extended period.

The same doesn’t hold true for the inverter, as it simply stores and relays electricity in the event of a power failure, but it doesn’t monitor it. However, inverters do enjoy the preferred status for general electric gadgets, whose working doesn’t get affected by extended delays in power supply.

UPSes generally cost more than inverters of the same size owing to the delicate circuitry they require.

Whether you need extended backup power for your home or business, or you wish to protect your sensitive instrumentation and equipment at all times, Sinetech can offer you The Power of Choice. Write to us at [email protected] or call 011 886 7874

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While loadshedding and power failures are inconvenient for households, long periods without power can be devastating for small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) in particular. After all, a power outage equals downtime, which translates into a decrease in customer satisfaction and a drop in your company’s reputation and, ultimately, a loss of revenue. SMBs are less likely to be able to absorb the impact of financial losses like an established, stable enterprise can.

One of the smartest investments you can make in your business is the purchase of a backup power supply. Informal traders and one-man operations should investigate small, portable plug-and-play units like the Power Caddy or Power Trolley which will provide power for a few appliances and lights, and keep that register ringing for under R7 000.

Small multi-employee businesses will benefit from fully automated, fully integrated inverter backup power systems that are directly wired into the DB board, like the OPIC4040S 4kW backup power system that is currently selling for R39 541 ex VAT including DC installation. This system has a runtime of 4 to 6 hours (depending on load) and provides backup power for items such as: Lights, Fridges and Freezers, Security Systems, Access Systems (garage and gate motors), Computers, Internet, Pumps (Fishpond etc.), Televisions, Cash Registers, POS Machines and more!

Still not enough backup power for your business? Let Sinetech assess your specific power needs and design a custom system. Call us on 011 886 7874 or send an email to [email protected] and banish the loadshedding blues forever.

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Once our illustrious National government realized the impact this folly (which they were forewarned about in 2003) would have on our country and its long term economic future, it was too late. Mines, manufacturers, resource processing plants and many other manner of high-volume electricity users had throttled back and in some cases, shut-down plants and have sought greener pastures.

Earlier in May 2016, our illustrious Number One, expressed his “happiness and excitement” for the achievement of the end of load-shedding in South Africa on a recent visit to Megawatt Park, Sunninghill. He proudly announced that Eskom was in fact so overstocked with electrons that they were now in a position to export to our neighbours. He also mentioned how happy the Eskom employees were, which is little wonder when the average annual salary at Eskom is R630,000 or R52,500 per month. I am fairly sure that the labour force out at the various power stations are not earning anywhere near that, which means Megawatt Park employees are, in fact, smiling all the way to the bank and not because of the end of load-shedding.

Although Eskom would like to attribute the absence of load-shedding as an achievement of their turnaround plan, the majority of this “success” is due to a massive drop in demand. It is estimated that approximately 10% of the total demand was wiped-out between 2013 and 2015. Luckily for Eskom, because their electricity production capacity also dropped from 37,745MW to 34,345 MW.

In effect, Eskom have been successful in avoiding declaring the reality of the dire circumstances through:
1) Load-shedding – A schedule of planned and communicated electricity outages to reduce the load on the overburdened grid.
2) Price increases- The price of electricity has more than doubled from 2008 to 2015 from 19c/kWh to 48c/kWh.

Large customers have gone elsewhere, South Africa’s economy is in its worst condition in decades and Pretoria are patting themselves on the back for ending load-shedding. Sadly, whilst load-shedding may be dead and gone AS A POLICY, I don’t believe that unscheduled power cuts can ever be declared impossible. In my view this is political rhetoric merely playing with the semantics of “load shedding”.

Suffice to say that in the Johannesburg region, we currently experience 11 power outages (NB. Not load-shedding) per day. Admittedly, some of these involve only one or two streets, however some are quite widespread as we saw this last weekend 20-22 May 2016, where a vast area of Johannesburg experienced long periods (in excess of 5 hours) without power. One area in Bryanston has now been without power for two days due to a transformer failure, no doubt it failed as a result of inadequate maintenance.

In effect, we as the consumer have gone backwards as a at least with load-shedding, you would be advised in advance and the outage period would be more or less in line with the prediction. Now, the outages are as and when something fails or the utility decides to summarily cut the power. Any attempt to establish the duration and cause of the outage from your friendly call centre will be met with routine vagueness.

It is inevitable for any power utility across the globe to have a maintenance backlog, usually due to budgetary and human resource constraints. In 2008 the backlog expressed in monetary terms was R27,4 Billion and has grown to a whopping R68 Billion in 2016. This, in a utility that is in fact producing less electricity than in 2008 down by approximately 9% in 2016 and the price per kWh up by a staggering 152%.

The above graph is a lesson in unsustainability in the electricity business, sharply declining production against what should be an ever increasing demand. Similarly, exponential price increases far in excess of the inflation rate. Appears electricity is becoming an LSM6-10 luxury commodity if one looks at this trend, perhaps Eskom should consider privatising into Richemont alongside their other premier brands like Cartier, Mont Blanc etc.

Thankfully, we as South Africans either make a noise or make a plan depending on your cultural background. We have been making a lot of noise for a long time, witness the ongoing service delivery strikes, but it seems Pretoria have other more pressing issues of an internal nature and thus respond with more empty promises.
So we are left with the only other option, and that is to make a plan to provide our own energy, which in essence implies solar energy for most small scale applications. However, the applicable legislation is as follows:

The Small Scale Embedded Generators (SSEG), in this case Photovoltaic solar panels with inverters etc, national standards have yet to be published and are more than 12 months overdue. The Department of Energy and NERSA are in the process of defining these standards and for very good cause. Should they have not been diligent in this process, then any sub-standard equipment could be connected to the electricity grid with potential disastrous results.

The disasters referred to could extend to a disruption of the electricity grid on a national basis or even the potential injury or death of utility technical personnel performing maintenance on the grid. Illegally connected “generators” could still be generating power, so albeit the system has been shut down, power could still be present, resulting in some severe consequences.

Additionally, there is currently no revenue recovery mechanism in place, thus any power you put back into the grid will just be absorbed with no benefit to you. In fact, in some instances the power you put back into the grid can be added to your bill.

This applies only to grid-tied systems and mercifully, we can employ point 2 above for “own use” in the interim and hopefully, during the course of 2016, the SSEG standards will be published. This will allow connection to the grid with some form of recompense for the power you put back into the grid and don’t use. The real attraction of being grid-tied, is that effectively, you use the national grid as an energy storage device rather than having a bank of batteries to store power generated by your solar panels during the day. This is the theory at least, however, the tariffing of what the utility will pay you for your power is also to still be defined in SSEG.

Having briefly set the scene from a “current state-of-play” perspective, it is clear to see that we have an electricity volume problem, despite current political sound-bites and we have ever-burgeoning increases in electricity pricing. Therefore, we need to explore ways to mitigate power outages, previously known as load-shedding and we need to find a way to reduce monthly electricity bills. Both of these requirements can be met with a Standalone PV Solar System, but where do you as a domestic or commercial user start?

Standalone PV Solar System

Any decent PV solar company will advise the prospective client to firstly reduce their overall load or electricity requirement by replacing at least the most regularly used lights in the building with LED or CFL globes. Lighting in domestic applications makes up to as much as 25% of the total electricity bill and by using a 7W LED globe you can obtain approximately the same amount of lighting as conventional 50W incandescent globe. Admittedly, LED globes are expensive, however they not only use less electricity but also last up to 10 times longer than CFL globes and as much as 40 times longer than incandescent globes. The company proposing your PV solar solution, should do these calculations for you once you have identified the relevant lights used to show potential savings.

The second area where substantial savings can be made is with water-heating, the average household uses 35% of their total electricity consumption to run electric geysers. Whilst solar water geysers are comparatively expensive, like LED lights, they amortise themselves in approximately 3.5 years. Thus by spending R20,000 on a solar water geyser today may seem expensive, calculate what one-third of your electricity bill is to see if it makes financial sense.

The next logical step in the process, having reduce your overall electricity usage, is to conduct a power audit at your premises. This will involve installation by the proposing PV solar company of a monitoring device for a period, recording the average and peak demands. Having measured this after the installation of the LED lights and the Solar Water geyser, the sizing of the solar or standby system will be substantially smaller and hence less expensive.

Once a peak-demand baseline is established, the PV solar company will conduct a site visit to establish the physical dimensions of your roof area, dimensions and distances of inverter/battery placement and connection to your electrical Distribution Board (DB) as well as considerations such as slope of roof angle, directional bearing of the proposed roof and multiple other parameters.

From this data, the solar company will develop a custom design that suits your specific building and power requirements. All too often we get asked the question “How much will it cost for me to go solar?” This is a very dangerous question to answer because, albeit that you have a 300 sqm house, with mom, dad and 2.5 kids, your particular energy usage is unique, even if the house next door is identical with the same occupants, their electricity usage can be substantially different. Similarly, the neighbours long term objectives could be different to yours, you may wish to get off the grid completely, whereas they may only wish to reduce their electricity bill by 50%. Some clients don’t even want to deploy solar initially, merely provide a back-up solution for power outages (remember Load-shedding is dead and gone, yeah right).

Back-up System

The schematic above refers to the simplest iteration known as a Back-Up System, an inverter and battery bank that is installed in-line to the distribution board of the home or business. This system effectively takes grid-power and stores it in the battery and monitors the presence or absence of grid-power. Should the grid fail, the system automatically switches in roughly 20ms to the battery bank and continues to provide power from the batteries. To contextualise the switch-over time, you will not even notice that you have switched to back-up power, and for rugby fans, DSTV does not reboot, so you won’t miss the match winning try. Naturally, this would be less-expensive as there are no solar panels present, however it is advisable to design the Back-Up System for scalability to allow for the addition of solar later.

Upon conclusion of the design , the solar company should provide you with a firm quote itemising all of the various system components and related services, such as installation, commissioning and maintenance. That old Latin warning applies “Caveat Emptor” or Buyer Beware. The selection of products and quality of the services will make a world of difference to how your solar system ultimately performs. The following are some questions you should ask:

Solar Panel Considerations

• Can the roof carry the additional weight of the proposed solar panels?
• If this has not been considered in the design, show the fellow the door.
• Is the mounting system for the panels non-penetrative?
• Sophisticated mounting systems obviate roof damage and hence leaks.
• What is the corrosion guarantee of the mounting system?
• Expect at least a 10 year lifespan.
• What risk is there of lightning damage and what can be done to mitigate this?
• Robust earthing is essential, however, you may add further lightning protection but it costs.
• Are the solar panels being proposed Tier 1 panels and what guarantee do they have? The answer should be yes and the guarantee should be 25 years.
• What is the linear performance guarantee, ie. what output degradation should be expected over the 25 year lifespan.
• Yield should be 80% or higher at the 25 year mark, thus about 0.4% per annum.

Inverter Considerations

• Confirm that the inverter size ie. 4kW, 10kW is adequate to serve your electricity load.
• Click here to download our “Appliance Calculator” to help you size your load.
• Ensure that the inverter proposed is a pure sinewave inverter.
• Modified sinewave inverters can be problematic with some appliances such as LED TV’s.
• There are 72 different inverter manufacturers products available in S.A. make sure the supplier and manufacturer have a good reputation and installed base.
• Names such as SMA, Outback, Omnipower, Victron and Studer are well established brands and most carry local NRS approvals.
• Does the inverter make use of transformers internally?
• Inverters that employ transformers are usually more resilient to power spikes etc.
• What is scalability of the inverter, both in terms of connecting serially to more inverters as well as the possibility of doing both off-grid and grid-tie ie. hybrid inverters.
• Some inverter manufacturers are offering hybrid inverters meaning the inverter can be grid-tied as well as offer off-grid functionality ie. excess power can be returned to the grid or stored in batteries by one single inverter. Previously, two separate inverters were required. This also allows flexibility of functionality in that you could start with having a simple backup system with batteries, no solar panels to cater for power outages and then later add the solar and grid-tie component. Alternately, one could start with grid-tie and solar, no batteries and then at a later stage add the back-up component of your own battery bank, all using one single inverter.

Grid-tied PV Solar System with hybrid off-grid functionality and Back-up

Battery Considerations

As described in the previous paragraphs, batteries are technically only needed for back-up and power storage in scenarios as follows:

• When you are effectively “tanking” power from Eskom into the batteries to provide power when there is a failure, thus, pure back-up. No solar panels are in installed in this scenario.
• When you are in an area where there is no grid power at all and you therefore use solar power during the day and store any excess in the batteries for use at night. Typical in a rural scenario.
• Where you have grid-power and have solar panels to reduce your Eskom bill plus battery back-up to provide power when Eskom has an outage. This scenario may also become relevant where you are putting excess power back into the grid at say 50 cents per kWh credit but then having to pay R1,50 per kWh when you use that power at night. It may be more cost effective to store your anticipated evening power demand in batteries first and once they are topped up, then feed the excess power into the grid for credit. We will only know these realities once NERSA’s SSEG initiative has published their standards and the related net-metering tariffs ie. what you earn back in credits and what you pay.

Source: Bloomberg

Bear in mind that albeit that you pursue solar power to reduce your bill and the demand on Eskom, your carbon footprint etc. you will be charged an additional surcharge for that pleasure. This is to protect the coffers of local municipalities who derive the bulk of their income from selling electricity which, apparently, they often don’t pay Eskom for, hence another reason for the crisis at Eskom.

The emotional response to this is “I want to get off the grid completely” and we as a company would be more than happy to help you with that, however, it would be difficult to make the business case in most instances. Providing a complete off-grid system requires accurate analysis of your particular usage plus we would have to factor in adequate storage for a suitable “autonomy” period ie. when there are cloudy or rainy days and limited sunlight, the battery banks would need to be substantial.

The sensible approach to take would be to provide a solution that is designed for self-consumption today ie. independent of the grid BUT carries all the necessary regulatory approvals and the technical scalability for grid-tie later. This would either be a standalone back-up system comprised of an inverter and battery bank or alternately the next step up, the standalone PV Solar system which would see the addition of several solar panels. The latter system would have the added benefit of providing some of your power requirements for both your household or business load as well as charging the batteries but would put no power back into the grid.

We all are already using solar in one form or another, just not in the scale or manner that we will in the future. Unlike fossil fuels, solar does not have a peak limit and is not a limited resource, thus more comparable to silicon chip technology. With ubiquity comes price contraction and in turn wider acceptance resulting in further funding of R&D and greater performance from solar panels.

Source: Bloomberg

Not convinced yet?

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The good news is that like all challenges, this can be overcome with a bit of foresight and co-operation from government. At the time of writing this, NERSA have just approved a further 9.4% increase for Eskom, who has in turn responded with some veiled threats alluding to further load-shedding. No doubt we, as consumers will not see much load-shedding pre-elections, but thereafter we could see a resumption of mid-2015 type outages.

NERSA are also currently establishing the Small Scale Embedded Generator (SSEG) program, which really refers to consumers producing their own power through solar, wind or other energy mechanisms. These “generators” in most domestic instances will be solar panels with the associated DC/AC inverters, batteries and other equipment depending on the application.

At a commercial or industrial level, solar is also used, however it is commonplace for business entities to already have petrol or diesel mechanical generators in place, given our history of load-shedding. Mechanical generators are expensive to run and maintain and are also noisy and generate carbon monoxide, so not ideal for all instances.

Solar has historically been cost prohibitive at both domestic and commercial level but with the acceptance of solar internationally over the last few years, production costs have decreased. This, in turn has reduced the price to the end-user and the with the ever increasing electricity tariffs solar solutions are now proving to be equitable per kW/h to classic grid power in some instances. This is referred to as “grid-parity”.

Thus, whilst the focus has been historically on providing standby power for those times when load-shedding or other Eskom outages occur, it has now shifted to a more commercial comparative. Homeowners and businesses alike are exploring the commercial possibility of employing solar as either a partial or total alternative to grid power provided by Eskom.

NERSA: Net Metering and Selling back to the grid

Current legislation does not permit the general public to connect and input electricity (grid-tie) to the national grid. This is for good reason as one can imagine the chaos that would erupt if all types of sub-standard devices were permitted to connect and upset the stability of the grid. Additionally, there is currently no revenue recovery mechanism in place, thus any power you put back into the grid will just be absorbed with no benefit to you. In fact, in some instances the power you put back into the grid can be added to your bill.

During the course of 2016 we expect that the SSEG will be approved and national guidelines and standards will be published, permitting grid-tie and grid interactive systems. Already, certain municipalities have permitted this with the appropriate application and certification.

This aside, many homes and businesses are already enjoying the benefits of “off-grid” systems either for back-up or self-use power.

System Examples

Grid-Tie PV Solar System with backup
The next evolution is the Grid-tied PV Solar System with Back-up which obviously adds the battery bank but also makes use of an additional bi-directional inverter. The additional inverter is to direct the DC current to/from the batteries and manage charging of the batteries. This system uses the solar array as the primary source of power and will only draw from the grid if the load demand is excessive.

Grid-Interactive PV Solar System
Finally, the Grid Interactive PV Solar System with Back-up draws all its power from the solar panels, stores energy in the batteries and then feeds off any excess power to the grid. The interactive inverter system makes use of an external charge controller for battery management.

These are typical configurations, however there are many more in the solar realm and beyond that, there are many in the wind, hydro and other dark arts of energy.

Earlier, we said that solar is no longer necessarily cost prohibitive, however, it is important to substantiate this and clarify that it will not always be cost justifiable, despite what others may tell you.

Price of solar panels continues to drop

The PV solar industry has a rough guideline in Swanson’s Law, an observation that the price of solar photovoltaic modules tends to drop 20 percent for every doubling of cumulative shipped volume. At present rates, costs halve about every 10 years. (Wikipedia)

Conversely, Eskom’s cost per kWh has increased way ahead of inflation since 2008 and looking at the electricity production versus real GDP, that is, in fact, decreasing. The divergence of the blue and the red line is the real concerning part as it appears we as consumers are paying more and Eskom as our only power utility, is shrinking. Yet the average salary per Eskom employee is a staggering R623,000 per annum with some 39,000 employees.

Aside from electricity becoming unaffordable, more importantly, it appears that it could also become less available entirely, no matter how much you are prepared to pay. It is thus in my view, imperative that we as South Africans start planning to employ alternatives that place our electricity and hence commercial destiny in our own hands. Whilst the DoE, Eskom and their 70 or so resellers (municipalities) dither over the SSEG, trying to protect their cash-cow, consumers should initiate an SSEG Must Rise campaign. Seems to be the only way to get things done nowadays.

It is possible, and in fact is already happening that domestic, commercial and industrial entities are installing grid-tied solar systems with disregard to any laws or regulations. This is not only technically undesirable for the national grid, but can also be mortally dangerous to Eskom technical staff when performing maintenance. We do not endorse or recommend this practice and the consequences of following this path could be substantial. Always check with your power provider if grid-tie is permissible and follow the certification process thoroughly, if they do allow grid-tie.

Let’s talk turkey … what’s this going to cost me?

A Back-Up System or a Standalone PV Solar System whilst not offering the commercial benefits such as net-metering, can still be a very effective way to either provide standby power or reduce your monthly electricity bill.

As a domestic example, a good quality 4 kVa inverter with the requisite batteries, in this case 8 X120Ah Gel batteries, will cost approximately R50,000. This configuration should provide enough power for a fridge/freezer, two to three TV’s, DSTV decoder, microwave, kettle and a few LED lamps for about 5 hours. One may argue that a small generator at a quarter of the price can do the same job, however generators are noisy, require maintenance, diesel or petrol to run, generate fumes and also generally don’t switch in automatically.

The most significant benefit of the Back-Up System is that it can be the first step towards a PV Solar system. By selecting the components of the initial back-up system correctly, that system can be augmented to connect to solar panels creating a Standalone PV Solar System.

As the name suggests this system does not connect to the grid and is purely for self-consumption. The volume of electricity supplied is determined by the number of solar panels installed and the yield of those panels given certain atmospheric conditions. Obviously, irradiation, the power of sunlight on a specific area, is one of the more significant factors affecting solar panel performance. Ironically though, whilst solar panels thrive on sunlight, they perform poorly with increases in temperature. Other factors such as humidity, cloud cover and wind also have an effect on the solar panels ability to perform optimally.

The cost to upgrade the Back-up System is basically the cost of the panels and in the example used, we would require 12 solar panels plus a charge controller. The installed and commissioned price of the additional equipment to upgrade the system to a Standalone PV System, should be in the order of a further R50,000.

Recently a large industrial company approached us to explore the possibility of installing solar power into one of their factories. They had met with their local council who provide their electricity to establish the legality of installing a grid-tied system and had been given tacit approval, subject to the certification process.

In this particular factory they were using slightly less than 21,000 kWh per month and the client required that the solar system provide approximately 50% or 10,000 kWh per month. To provide this we would require 485 sqm of North-facing roof and in this instance the client had 2140 sqm, thus more than ample space for the solar panels.

The panels we elected to use were the Solar Frontier SF170, Copper Indium Selenium (CIS) panels which we have found, through long range testing, perform extremely well.

Sinetech tests panel yield at its own facility

The Sinetech premises is equipped with a test facility at which different types and brands of panels are compared. The graph below below shows a comparison for a typical high yield day. In the figure, 3 different technologies are compared, a 3kWp monocrystalline system, a 3kWp polycrystalline system as well as a 3kWp CIS system. On days with high solar radiation (as seen in the graph below) the CIS panels produces on average 12.5 % more power compared to the mono- and polycrystalline panels. Looking at a yearly average, the CIS panels produce on average 11.5 % more power compared to the mono and polycrystalline panels.

Total cost of the system proposed was slightly less than R1,5 million, designed, installed and commissioned. Assuming a 15% increase in electricity tariffs per annum, the savings for the client amount to R48,1 million over the subsequent 25 years. The payback period for the system would be 4 years and 10 months and there would also be environmental benefits.

This shows the commercial viability that solar has in an industrial context; however, savings can also be achieved at a domestic level but not as significant as at the industrial or commercial level. Payback periods are in the order of 8 to 10 years. Whereas the capital investment in the industrial example constitutes about 3% of the overall savings, in the domestic scenario it is approximately 18%.

Funding at the domestic level is one of the biggest challenges, as the order of magnitude of a solar deployment for an average house will be in excess of R200,000. Few households have this amount surplus, however to finance such an installation could well be viable. Using the funds available in an existing home-loan such as an Accessbond could make sense or there are even cheaper, from an interest perspective, mechanisms available from certain solar providers.

A closing comment from the Department of Energy: “The Minister has determined that 3 725 megawatts (MW) to be generated from Renewable Energy sources is required to ensure the continued uninterrupted supply of electricity” As we have all become reasonably acclimatised to electricity outages, although we have had minimal, official “load-shedding” recently. The more prevalent question now is how will we afford electricity in the next 10 years if the recent historical increases persist?

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