highveld branch meeting number 293
TRANSCRIPT
Highveld Branch Meeting Number 293
AMEU VIRTUAL MEETING HOSTED BY THE HIGHVELD BRANCH
FRIDAY, 5 JUNE 2020
10H00 - 12H00
Chaired by Mrs. Mokgadi Magemba, GM Technology Services, City Power
Meeting Agenda
1. Welcome
2. AMEU Highveld Branch Matters – WiE – Affiliate – AMEU News (30 mins)
3. Highveld Branch presentation – Covid-19 and other current affairs – Paul Vermeulen (30 mins)
4. AMEU Strategic Adviser’s report/feedback – Vally Padayachee (20 mins)
5. International Speaker (20 mins):
- “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global power sector”
by Richard Pinnock, Executive Vice President, AFRY, Zurich, Switzerland
5. Local Speaker (20 mins):
- “Risk mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the South African economy from a power utility
service delivery and business sustainability perspective” by Andrew Etzinger, General Manager, Business
Sustainability and Risk Management, ESKOM
6. Closure
Chair’s Rules and Meeting Protocols
• Microsoft Teams is the platform, so please -
• To avoid noise interference, make sure your microphone is muted.
• The chairperson will indicate when the floor will be open for questions and interact with you on an individual basis
• Please use the ‘raise hand’ feature if you wish to raise a question, and wait for the chair to call on you for your input
• Please keep questions or comments short and concise
• When done, please remember to mute your microphone once again
The new format for meetings – for now…
• Branch meetings replaced by a programme of virtual meetings within the following framework:
• Meetings every second month on a similar day and time of the month starting end May.
• The virtual meeting sessions should last no longer than two(2) hours
• Branches to alternate hosting and chairing these meetings.
• Content to include the Strategic Advisor’s feedback, Branch/Affiliates feedback , operation reports and presentations incorporating both a national and local Branch specific flavour.
• Content may include international participants or speakers.
• Utility members from AMEU, SARPA & PIESA to be invited.
• Affiliate members from only AMEU to be invited.
• Meetings to be recorded and short minutes to be kept of decisions.
• The Strategic Advisor, Branch Chair and Affiliates representative of respective hosting branches are to collaborate with respect to meeting arrangements.
• The Secretariat to assist with the communication and the technical staging of events and meetings.
Note on Branch Finances
Affiliate Feedback – Nisha Chetty
Affiliate’s Feedback
• The Committee supports the decision to postpone the annual Convention to next year
• All plans and bookings have been postponed until the date for next year is finalised.
• Golf day will also be postponed until further notice
• One of our committee members has resigned and has joined another company. The position is currently open and will be communicated
2020 WiE Achievements
Women in Engineering Workshop at Vaal University of Technology
On the 6th of March 2020, AMEU WIE in partnership with Vaal University of Technology and SAIEE student Chapter hosted a
Woman in Engineering Workshop. The aim was to bring together women who have been successful in the engineering
industry to share their achievements and challenges with woman engineering students.
2020 Focus Area due to Covid 19
• MV/LV reticulation planning• Root cause analysis• Report writing• Switchgear, transformers and tap changers • Electrical Protection • Substation Design• Networking (CCNA)• Energy efficiency• Renewable Energy • Communication networks related• IEC 61850 courses & applications• SCADA• Smart Meters
• Supervisory skills• Management • Executive development • Team leader
Next up – AMEU News – Max Clarke
AMEU NEWS 2020
ISSUE NO.100; THIS WAS PUBLISHED IN MARCH
101; NOW BEING PUT TOGETHER; PUBLICATION DELAYED FROM JUNE TO JULY BECAUSE OF
LOCKDOWN
102; PLANNED FOR NOVEMBER
APPEAL; PLEASE FORWARD A FEW ONE-LINE COMMENTS ON YOUR RECENT ACTIVITIES OR PROJECTS
OR PROBLEMS FOR INCLUSION;
NB; BY SHARING WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER
SOME IDEAS ON PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT HAVE SOLVED;
• How does one handle PPE’s and “distancing” requirements for artisans or linesman working
in a bucket doing pole-top or line work?
• And what about vehicles - are there unique ways of transporting multi-persons teams to
work sites?
• How does one handle cable jointing in a confined space?
• What about when a “team” is dispatched to disconnect illegal connections?
• What must be done to keep PPE’s in good condition and hygienic?
AFFILIATES, PLEASE NOTE; IF YOU WISH TO MAKE USE OF THE NEWSLETTER
FOR ADVERTISING PLEASE CONTACT ME TO DISCUSS YOUR NEEDS.
MAX CLARKE; [email protected] 083 273 9519 / 011 285 0940
Highveld Branch PresentationCovid -19 and other current affairs
The Pandemic
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The Covid-19 Impact on Business – Labour Force
As an essential services provider, City Power identified the labour force that needs to be physically at work and provided permits –
• Established new work protocols to create safe work procedures
• Establishment of safe work environment, screening, sanitizing stations, facilities cleaning, testing and processes to deal with potential infections
• Special planning for Control Centre operations, set up of alternative control centre facilities
• Ramp up of Wellness capacity to handle identified infections and co ordinate screening, testing and contact tracing
Also identified the labour force that can ‘work from home’ –
• Functions that depend on ‘Professional Services’ type of work have continued fairly well
• On-line Data limitations partly an issue, unreliable meeting platforms frustrating to use
The Covid-19 Impact on Business – Labour Force 2
Some of the labour force was split into two or three separate shifts or cycles to provide skeleton staff services on a week-on / week-off basis to limit person to person contact
Part of the labour force could not sensibly be used and were instructed to stay at home
Review of business processes with the objective to automate /digitize processes
• Electronic signature / authorization system in development
• Reinforce SAP authorization processes for staff admin as far as possible
Going forward as Lockdown eases, special attention will be given to protecting the vulnerable and older labour force
The Covid-19 Impact on Business - Operations
Keeping the lights on:
• Front-line and contractor staff working at the customer premises are most at risk and must take precautionary measures
• Work procedures and operations are more complex, work rate has slowed as a result
• Travelling for staff is a challenge – potential infection through use of public transport to and from work or to site
• Concern over the Virus ‘running its course’ through the operational labour force, may be inevitable and it is unknown whether recovery will provide immunity from re-infection
• Vandalism and theft incidents dramatically reduced under level 1 and into level 2 until such time as businesses supporting the waste recycling sector were also permitted to open
The Covid-19 Impact on Business – Engineering Services
Engineering Services – Network planning and construction
• Local construction has continued albeit at a slower pace
• Projects dependent equipment imports suspended
• Projects dependent on specialized / overseas resources also suspended until next year. (e.g. 275kV cable terminations, SCADA on site upgrade activities)
• Project budgets are being closely monitored and reallocated to projects where resources are available and work can continue, and in alignment with permitted activities as per Level of Lockdown
• Smart Meter rollout and prepaid conversions – those network related services involving direct customer interaction were suspended, now need to be restarted
• The Professional Services type of work has generally continued well, as this work is amenable to ‘working from home’
The Covid-19 Impact on Business – Customer Services
Metering, Billing, Revenue Management and Query Resolution
• All Face-to-Face customer interaction suspended, special facilities are to be set up to allow customer interaction
• Lockdown has led to difficult circumstances (‘Perfect Storm’ for revenue)
• Higher levels of meter tampering and bypassing is anticipated
• Suspension of non-payment cut-offs creating added unrecoverable future debt
• Massive query backlog developing, inevitably with added potential revenue loss
• Nevertheless, we soldier on, working hard to improve the collection rates up to where they need to be. We now need consumer support more than ever.
The Covid-19 Impact on the Community
Covid-19 has laid bare the plight of those without electricity-
• Forced to stay at home with electricity is one thing, forced to do the same (if you have a proper home) without the comfort of electricity is something else altogether…..
• Meeting the need for housing with universal access to modern energy services is imperative
• The digital economy requires electricity to function
• “Working from home” also requires electricity
• If the ‘first wave’ for SA was the HIV devastation of the middle age group, what now of those households containing only the young and the vulnerable old?
The Changed Load Profile
Eskom Load profilesince the start of Lockdown:
Initially Level 5 sawan average drop indemand of 5 678 MW.
By 3 June under Level 3, the averagedrop in demand was3138 MW.
(Slide courtesy ofEskom, Robert Koch)
The difference between the previous year’s actual and this year’s forecast. Spikes are the missing morning
peaks, solid part is volume reduction, reduced revenue
Lockdown Load Profile Change
Weekday load profile of Delta Substation (Craighall) supplying Northern regions of Johannesburg
Tuesday 26 May 2020 - Dark BlueTuesday 28 May 2019 - Light Blue
Missing Morning
Peak
Longer and Bigger Evening
Peak
• Promote residential TOU, perhaps on prepaid basis?
• Rejuvenate load management systems – geyser control
• Add control group for storage in residential hybrid PV systems
Now more than ever, we need to manage the residential peak load
Current Requests for comment on key industry documents
• Amendments to the New Generation Regulations - Closed yesterday, 4 June 2020
• BESS Grid Code – Comments close on 12 June, available from Mr Target Mchunu Pr. Eng., Chief Engineer: System Operator – Grid Code Management Department Eskom -Transmission Group E-mail: [email protected]
• SANS 10142-1-2 - Comments close on 4 July 2020, document available from Frans Brandow at [email protected] he will consolidate for AMEUor send comment directly to [email protected]
President Ramaphosa’s Feb 2020 SONA speech
“We are taking the following measures to rapidly and significantly increase generation capacity outside of Eskom:”
• A Section 34 Ministerial Determination will be issued shortly, by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, to give effect to the Integrated Resource Plan 2019, enabling the development of additional grid capacity from renewable energy, natural gas, hydro power, battery storage and coal.
• We will initiate the procurement of emergency power from projects that can deliver electricity into the grid within three to 12 months from approval.
• The National Energy Regulator will continue to register small scale distributed generation for own use of under one megawatt (MW), for which no licence is required.
• The National Energy Regulator will ensure that all applications by commercial and industrial users to produce electricity for own use above 1MW are processed within the prescribed 120 days. It should be noted that there is now no limit to installed capacity above 1MW.
• We will open bid window 5 of the renewable energy Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and work with producers to accelerate the completion of window 4 projects.
• We will negotiate supplementary power purchase agreements to acquire additional capacity from existing wind and solar plants.
• We will also put in place measures to enable municipalities in good financial standing to procure their own power from IPPs.
NERSA Concurrence Papers 1& 2
Risk Mitigation PPP issue of RFI
New Schedule 2 Exemptions
Also part of RMPPP
New Gen Regltn. Amendments
NERSA Concurrence on Ministerial Determinations - Paper 1
• In December, the DMRE issued the Risk Mitigation Power Purchase Program, RFI to be managed by the IPP Office. This calls for 2000MW to fill the short-term supply gap
• NERSA called for comment on concurrence to the Minister’s IRP determinations with respect to 2000 to 3000 MW new generation capacity from a range of energy technologies. (Comment closed on 14 April 2020).
• The first four years of the ‘Other / Distributed Generation category in the IRP had been blocked off and marked as an allocation for the short term supply gap
• In mid May, NERSA concurred with the Minister’s Determination on the matter and approved the allocation
NERSA Concurrence on Ministerial Determinations - Paper 2
• The paper called for comment on variously timed capacity determinations in respect of the main IRP allocations:• Wind, 2022 to 2024, capacity of 4800 MW• Solar, 2022 to 2024, capacity of 2000 MW• Battery Energy Storage (Eskom Pilot) by 2022, 513 MW• Gas, 2024 to 2027, capacity of 3 000 MW• New Coal, 2023 to 2027, capacity 1500 MW
• Comments closed on 7 May
• This process will include public participation
• Eskom is again nominated as the buyer in the paper, is it likely NERSA will concur on these determinations as they stand as well?
If so, what may still be available in the IRP for us?
Eskom confirmed as buyer
Eskom nominated as buyer, NERSA likely to concur?
This may be our only opportunity and has to
include capacity for ‘own use’ primary energy
sources for the private sector, local government, end customers, as well as
any distributed battery energy storage capacity
Why should Munics have IRP ‘Determinations’?
From the Constitution:• Objects of local government
152. (1) The objects of local government are—
(a) to provide democratic and accountable government for local communities;
(b) to ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner;
(c) to promote social and economic development;
(d) to promote a safe and healthy environment; and
(e) to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government.
(2) A municipality must strive, within its financial and administrative capacity, to achieve the objects set out in subsection (1).
Developmental duties of municipalities
153. A municipality must—
(a) structure and manage its administration and budgeting and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community, and to promote the social and economic development of the community; and
(b) participate in national and provincial development programmes.
From the Municipal Systems Act:Municipal Services, General duty:
73. (1) A municipality must give effect to the provisions of the
Constitution and—
(a) give priority to the basic needs of the local community;
(b) promote the development of the local community; and
(c) ensure that all members of the local community have access to at
least the minimum level of basic municipal services.
(2) Municipal services must-
(a) be equitab]e and accessible:
(b) be provided in a manner that is conducive to-
(c) the prudent, economic, efficient and effective use of available
resources;
and
(ii) the improvement of standards of quality over time;
(c) be financially sustainable;
(d) be environmentally sustainable; and
(e) be regularly reviewed with a view to upgrading, extension and
improvement.
Who is responsible for the Security and Continuity of Supply?
• Licensee obligations – NRS048 Quality of Supply requirements must be met by licensed distributors
• Precedents exist, several municipal distributors have legacy diesel fired gas turbine plant as well as pumped storage facilities – these have and continue to be used to good effect
• We do have the right to use both SUPPLY or DEMAND Side options to manage supply continuity on our networks – there is no law that states otherwise
• While we are dependent on the national bulk energy supplier, we, as local distributors are ultimately responsible for ensuring an acceptable quality of supply is delivered to our businesses and citizens
Munics do need to have IRP ‘Determinations’ so that -
• We can utilize distribution connected generation to flatten the ‘residual load’ profile presented to Eskom
• We can reduce the cost of supply from Eskom
• We can dispatch alternative sources of supply to offset any calls for load shedding
• Wherever we are blessed with natural resources and unique regional opportunities, we can take advantage of them for the good of our communities
• We can gain access to cleaner energy (at a stable, reduced cost) to meet our City’s emission reduction targets
• We can catalyse new industries and stimulate economies within our own cities and towns
• We often take the grid for granted – we do not properly acknowledge its properties and expect it is simply an infinite source of electricity
• It is the classic network – it connects everything together, very similar to the WWW
• What happens at one node of the grid has an impact on other nodes at locations both above and below that point
• Grids allow us to take full advantage of diversity
• Those connected to it form part of a community
• It is no longer a one-to-many kind of network, it naturally has the ability to connect many SSEG generators to loads
When something changes on this part of the grid -The impact is also felt on this part And vice-versa
The Value of Distribution Grids
The Value of Embedded Renewable Energy Generation
• The bottleneck in power systems is generally at the transmission or bulk (HV) transformer capacity level, while the existing cable and transformer capacity down at the 11kV / 400V level is two to three times greater. No massive capital outlay is needed to integrate distributed energy sources.
• Even though by 2030 about 34% of the energy blend arriving from the National Grid will be from green sources, Cities require an injection of additional green energy and energy efficiency gains to meet their clean energy targets by 2030.
• Energy injected directly into the MV distribution network avoids HV distribution losses, reduces technical losses by up to 7 %
• Renewable energy systems have no associated fuel costs and relatively low ongoing maintenance costs. The cost is largely determined by capital expense and is virtually fixed over decades, and can displace cross subsidy costs over time
• We have an opportunity to incentivize co-investments in energy storage systems as RE capacity grows on our networks
The Value of Dispatchable Generation
• Many of the Highveld Municipalities have piped natural gas running under their feet
• A fair portion of the Gas Generation in the IRP should be allocated to sites within these municipalities
• To have a good measure of dispatchable primary energy within our networks will have multiple additional localized benefits –
• The facilities will be used everyday for arbitrage and demand charge management
• They will be essential to ‘back up’ solar generation on poor solar days
• They will be used to avoid an equal proportion of load shedding
• Developing a growing fleet of piped-gas powered generation in Gauteng now can assist in the subsequent development of the LNG industry to support generation in coastal regions
Energy Storage can be applied to:
• Optimizing energy procurement costs
• Protecting the Economy
• Preserving overloaded distribution infrastructure
• Unlocking property development
• Supporting densification
• Optimizing Investment in renewable energy systems
• Providing basic energy services
However ~It all depends on where it is placed on the distribution network
and how it is operated:
• Benefits of stacking for better, improved DSM
• Putting storage at the door of the customer has advantages
The Value of Energy StorageNote also:Energy storage is not a primary energy source, it is rather a facility that can change the time that the output from any low cost, true primary energy source is used, including coal fired generation.
While it is often associated with renewables firming, distributed or embedded energy storage on its own has significant DSM and alternative energy integration potential for distribution system operators.
It will be key in enabling a smooth ‘energy transition’
• The winter load profile can be largely flattened with a coordinated combination of:
• 350 MW of PV generation
• 250 MW (1650 MWh) energy storage
• Up to stage 2 load shedding can be averted – effectively no load shedding
• The same combination applied to the Summer Load curve can both flatten the profile and begin to reduce peak energy purchases
Flattening the Load Profile
Make a local start –Trading and Wheeling
• Up until now, we have been exclusively ‘wheelers’ of Eskom energy
• A sustainable new option available to us is to offer our grids for transportation services for all kinds of distributed energy sources to our end customers, for the same ‘wheeling’ fee
• The scheme allows customer access to Carbon Tax offsets
• This has potential to unleash significant private investment in clean energy
New wheeling tariff will enable linked properties to generate at property A for consumption at property B
Municipality can still earn up to 56,67 cents per kWh
2019109,13 c/kWh
< 100 c/kWh
Electricity Alternatives - LPG Intervention Task Team
The LPG task team was set up by the DMRE with the following objectives:
• To look at how an LPG intervention programme that is meant to take pressure off the ESKOM and Municipal grids could affect Municipal revenues
• To check the potential for their ability to earn new income as a result of the diversion of consumption from the grid to alternative gas energy technologies.
• Since the residential market accounts for +/-23% of electricity consumption, determine whether municipalities would indeed be affected by losing out on revenue?
• If so, how are they affected, to what extent and what can be done to make sure it all balances out?
The LPG team met with City Power where the discussion focused on the issue that municipalities supplied Eskom power on the Megaflex Local Authority Tariff are most likely subsidizing the activity of electric cooking – every 1,5 kW hotplate used for evening cooking requires an annual subsidy of R294 per annum from the distributor, excluding nuisance outage costs.
• The team was also tasked to see how they can work together other municipalities to drive the initiative with mutual benefit to both industries and requested contact through SALGA and the AMEU.
Draft amendments to New Generation Regulations
At a high level, some comments –
• Clarity is needed on the definition of what ‘going concern’ means
• Why do the regulations only apply to organs of state? Private enterprise aren’t subject to the same rules?
• We are not entirely convinced that we do in fact need Ministerial Determinations. The outcome of the CoT court case is still pending….
• The amendment ‘to permit a municipality to apply to the minister….’ kind of makes the requirement a mandatory / statutory mechanism in the regulation
• While we understand the need for feasibility studies and to follow MFMA process, but what makes an enterprise ‘feasible’? Competitive to Eskom?
• The minister may require ‘additional information’ sounds like he is setting up an undefined escape mechanism for decisions and should be obliged in the regulations to give reasons for decisions and allow appeals
Back to the Chair…
• Summary of meeting decisions and actions to be taken -
Branch Meeting Program Conclusion
Chair’s closing of the Branch Meeting
Handover to the Special Advisor to give his feedback presentation
Followed by the guest presenters:
“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global power sector”
by Richard Pinnock, Executive Vice President, AFRY, Zurich, Switzerland
“Risk mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the South African economy from a power utility service delivery and business sustainability perspective”
by Andrew Etzinger, General Manager, Business Sustainability and Risk Management, ESKOM