Abstract
The increasing energy demand is straining South Africa's existing power generation infrastructure. Additionally, conventional power plants, which are the primary sources of electricity, significantly contribute to the nation's high carbon footprint. To address these challenges, Republic of South Africa is slowly expanding its renewable sources of energy region, aiming to reduce CO2 emissions while ensuring a more reliable power supply based on its population. South Africa's national power utility, Eskom, has faced intense scrutiny recently due to significant tariff hikes that have placed considerable pressure on organizations. This issue is compounded by the utility's inability to meet the demand for electricity, resulting in frequent power cuts, commonly referred to as load shedding. Power outages impose both direct and indirect costs on consumers, with the overall impact on an organization depending on factors for instance conditions, time frame, continuance, occurrence rate of frequency, and the particular degree of reliance on electricity. These direct costs can substantially affect an organization’s financial performance, such as equipment or staff. Additionally, industries may face immediate expenses related to shutting down and restarting processes, mechanical disasters, harm to or spoilage of stock, and reduced data.
The HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources) simulation tool was applied to assess the feasibility of implementing a battery-based solar PV system, featuring 11,022 kW of photovoltaic (PV) capacity and 25,391 kWh of battery storage. The simulation focused on a hybrid energy solution, which projected a significant reduction in the annual utility bill to R482,260. Financial analysis revealed an exceptional investment return of 18 months, alongside an impressive benefit-cost ratio of 86.63%. The proposed method demonstrates its capability to provide electricity to a mining company at a cost competitive with traditional energy sources. Furthermore, the study highlighted a stark contrast between the current and proposed energy systems. In the base case, the facility incurs a hefty consumption charge of R22.8 million. However, under the proposed solar PV system, these costs dropped to R482,260, resulting in annual savings of R22.3 million in consumption charges and an overall total saving of R22.4 million.