Panel on Energy Storage and Alternative Energy Solutions

The South African-German Energy Partnership supported its partner SAESA (South African Energy Storage Association) to host a panel discussion on energy storage themed ‘Energy storage and alternative energy solutions’ held on the 9^th of June from 09h30 – 10h30.

The session which was administratively organised by the VUKA Group, was positioned as one of the side events under the auspices of the Enlit Africa conference held on the 7 – 9 June in Cape Town. SAESA used the session to further share its concept of developing a sanitised Handbook on how to implement battery energy storage projects in South Africa with the conference stakeholders.

The panel discussion was moderated by the Head of Secretariat of the South African-German Energy Partnership from GIZ-South Africa with a panel of three members: the Chief Engineer of Renewable Energies at City Power Johannesburg, the Executive Director of Enerj Carbon Management as well as the Sales Director for Smart Infrastructure at Siemens South Africa. All panel members made opening remarks regarding battery energy storage technology, the global developments, trends in price reduction, the benefits and the role of the technology in the bigger energy security debate in South Africa. It was noted that municipalities can benefit a lot if they were to successfully convince their intensive energy users to invest in battery energy storage capacity for own consumption (cushion against loadshedding) and discharging any surplus to the grid as and when needed.