South Africa – creating a stable & sustainable power supply with photovoltaics

Exploiting potential through tax incentives

Although the African continent has the second highest population in the world at 1.2 billion people, the PV capacity of 5 GW (of which 1.8 GW is in South Africa) is just one percent. By comparison, China, with a similar population, installed around 40 GW in 2018 alone. According to the South African Department of Energy, the country’s electricity demand will double to around 90 gigawatts by 2030, which presents both opportunities and difficulties. In order to achieve the declared goal of generating 17.8 GW from renewable energies by 2030, PV systems are supported by the government with tax breaks. Depending on the size of the system, the government will grant a percentage-adjusted reduction in business tax liability.

“Load shedding” due to grid overloads

Years of neglecting urgently needed maintenance work on coal-fired power stations has led to constant overloading of the grid, forcing the national grid operator “Eskom” to resort to load shedding. The term “load shedding” means the temporary and partial shutdown of the electricity supply due to a lack of generating capacity to prevent a nationwide blackout. This represents an unacceptable risk, especially for banks that conduct stock exchange trading, hospitals and companies. For this reason, the push for greater reliability of supply and independence from the public grid is increasing and is also driving the photovoltaic market. Since load shedding takes place most often in the evening, storage systems are indispensable. The “GEN24”, for example, offers a very good back-up solution. This hybrid inverter is an all-in-one solution with an integrated energy management system and emergency power supply function that can be adapted to individual customer requirements.

The Fronius Ohmpilot as a solution for zero feed-in limitation

Although the grid integration of photovoltaic systems has made great progress in recent years, the grid operator demands a PV power feed-in limitation – the zero feed-in limitation. This regulation results from the risk that the infeed of the PV power will lead to thermal overload, which would endanger the stability of the grid. The zero feed-in limitation is compatible with the Fronius Ohmpilot thanks to dynamic power reduction of 0 - 100%. The electricity is used to generate heat rather than being restricted. The Ohmpilot also offers the advantage of increasing the rate of self-consumption to up to 100%, so that less electricity is required from the grid and thereby reducing the energy costs.