Question NW2793 to the Minister of Energy

Reply:

a) There are currently fifty eight (58) Independent Power Producers supplying Eskom with energy. These IPPs are located in different parts of the country but mostly in the Northern Cape (1 small hydro IPP, 2 wind IPPs and 24 solar IPPs), Eastern Cape (12 wind IPPs and 1 solar IPP) and the Western Cape (4 wind IPPs and 5 solar IPPs).

b) The combined number of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) currently producing electricity are categorized per technology as follows:

• 33 IPP’s produce electricity through Solar Photovoltaic. Most of these IPPs are located in areas where there is sufficient solar radiation such as the Northern Cape. In addition, these projects also require substantial land to place the solar panel and such land must not be agricultural land;

• 18 IPPs produce electricity through Wind. Wind projects also requires land but such land may still be used for stock farming. In most cases, the land used by IPPs in this regard is mountainous and is not good for agricultural activities;

• 4 IPP’s produce electricity through Concentrated Solar. All these IPPs are located in the Northern Cape due to the good solar radiation in this province. Some of the Concentrated Solar has energy storage which allows for generation of energy during the peak time and avoid using expensive diesel generators to serve the peak demand;

• 2 IPP’s produce electricity through Hydro. Hydro can be regarded as a base load power plant because it can generate electricity 24 hours a day depending on the availability of water; and

• 1 IPP produce electricity through Landfill Gas. This technology also can generate electricity 24 hours a day using the gas that comes from the landfills. It is a very innovative way of utilizing our landfill as a source of energy.

c) As at the end of July 2017, the installed generation capacity is over 3200 Megawatts taking into account all the different technologies. The energy produce by each technology to date is as follows:

• The Solar photovoltaic IPPs have generated approximately 7 726 GWh of energy;

• The wind IPPs have generated approximately 9 161 GWh of energy;

• The concentrated solar IPPs have generated approximately 934 GWh of energy;
• The Small hydro power producers have generated approximately 110 GWh of energy,  
• While the Land fill gas IPP has generated approximately 15 GWh of energy.

In total all the IPPs have generated slightly under 18 000 GWh of energy.