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- Eskom said it was on course to complete 12 renewable energy projects by the end of 2021.
- An anticipated 12 projects will bring total installed capacity of 1082 MW, with one project scheduled in 2022 with an installed capacity of 75 MW.
- This comes as load shedding returned to South African homes and businesses at the beginning of the week.
Eskom said on Tuesday that it was on course to complete 12 renewable energy projects by the end of 2021, in line with a commitment to bolster commercial operation of new projects by the year 2023.
The power utility responded to questions from Fin24 on Monday after load shedding returned to South African homes and businesses at the beginning of the week.
South Africa is already hot off the heels of its worst year on record in terms of load shedding in 2020. This is despite the fact that a national lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19 brought various industries to a halt for months.
The renewable energy projects Eskom mentioned are expected to add a total of 1082 MW of installed capacity onto the power system. Medupi power station alone has 4800 MW of installed capacity.
In the email, Eskom said it entered into 27 power purchase agreements with renewable energy independent power producers totalling 2305 MW in 2018.
The email said 12 of those projects have achieved commercial operation at a total installed capacity of 1048 MW.
Eskom said the renewable energy has a send-out capability the third of installed capacity, with the remainder of the projects are scheduled to enter commercial operation during the course of 2021.
"An anticipated 12 projects will bring total installed capacity of 1082 MW, with one project scheduled in 2022 with an installed capacity of 75 MW. The last project scheduled to enter commercial operation will be 100 MW in November 2023," Eskom said.
This also comes as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa has given Eskom the green light to introduce up to 12 000 MW of power into the system.
