CAPE TOWN - South Africa’s 22 wind farm power operators say that they were not consulted about Eskom’s plan for them to cease producing electricity, due to reduced demand during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The power utility failed to alert or warn the independent power producers (IPP), which have a combined installed capacity of 1980MW prior to the issuing of the notices, South African Wind Energy Association chief executive Ntombifuthi Ntuli said yesterday.
Eskom earlier in the day said it would temporarily halt the procurement of electricity from wind power producers during the 21-day lockdown, due to reduced demand.
On Monday, Eskom said it had also taken some of its own generation units temporarily off-line, as demand had dropped by more than 7500MW since the start of the lockdown.
However, “Eskom’s Single Buyer Office sent a letter to all operating IPPs last week to confirm that the categorisation of essential services applies to facilities currently in operation,” Ntuli pointed out.
South Africa - South Africa’s 22 wind farm power operators say that they were not consulted about Eskom’s plan for them to cease producing electricity, due to reduced demand during the Covid-19 lockdown.
FILE PHOTO: Bongani Mbatha/African News Agency(ANA)
She said they would approach Eskom to find a solution that did not prejudice the country nor the power producers.
Eskom could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The wind sector is able to curtail power on short notice and in precise increments.
SOUTH AFRICA - Cape Town - 3 March 2020. The Gouda Wind Farm is a 138-MW wind farm, with forty-six AW100/3000 turbines. Gouda is the first wind farm installed by ACCIONA in South Africa. The Grid was connected in 2015, and it has forty-six 3-MW (unit capacity) turbines of ACCIONA Windpower technology mounted on concrete towers with a hub height of 100 meters. Located in Drakenstein, 100 kilometers north-west of Cape Town, it can produce enough power every year to cover the demand from around 200,000 South African homes. The owners of this wind farm are Acciona (54.9%); Royal bafokeng Holdings (25.1%); Soul City (10%); Gouda Wind Energy Community Trust (10%). Gouda is a settlement in Cape Winelands District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Of Khoekhoen origin, the name Gouda is said to mean ‘antelope’. Another possible translation is ‘honey path’, ‘honey defile’. It is unrelated to the Dutch city of the same name. Picture Henk Kruger/African News Agency(ANA)