Abstract
M.Ing. (Electrical Engineering)
The objectives were to perform extensive research on the South African Renewable Energy Storage capabilities and business case. The focus was also to investigate the advantages it would bring to the country to invest in energy storage solutions to aid in not only meeting their electricity demand forecasted for the next 25 to 40 years but also focussing on the energy dips, known as the Duck Curve”.
In other words providing flexibility to the National Grid in parallel whilst also reducing the carbon footprint of the current generating station by either remodelling them, or to completely replace them with a better solution such as renewable energy with storage. This involves looking into the country’s previous, current and forecasted energy demands and energy sources available and comparing that results when a storage component is added to multiple parts on the grid.
Alternatively, to investigate the ability to store electricity generated from any large power source (preferably Renewable Power Sources) efficiently and safely to support big communities, towns or cities for at least 24 hours at a continuous stable rate and the transmission and distribution infrastructure benefits there are when adding a storage component. The final expected output of the research would be to develop a basic spread sheet calculator capable of calculating the energy and financial impact it would have when implementing a certain amount of storage onto the national grid.