Green Economy Journal Issue 48

ENERGY
POWER
FROM BITS TO WATTS
According to The Global Carbon Atlas, South Africa is the 12th biggest emitter of greenhouse
gases on the planet. It is clear that the country needs to reduce its carbon emissions and
accelerate the growth of renewable energy across the region to ensure an affordable and
reliable energy supply.
RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY
CONSUMPTION IN SA
DMRE, SANEDI and UCT recently published a ground-breaking report on residential energy
use. The study assesses the impact of energy efficient appliances on electrical energy
consumption in South Africa.
“In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 50% of the population still
don’t have access to electricity,” said Huang Su, CEO of South
Africa Digital Energy Business, Huawei. “Beyond that, thousands
of hospitals and schools don’t have a stable power supply. This can
easily become disastrous.”
While South Africa is the leading power on the continent when it comes
to power generation, Su points out that it’s currently unable to meet all its
electricity demands all the time. “There is still a massive gap to be bridged,”
he says, “We have to ensure we provide sufficient electricity to every
African household.”
To achieve this, Huawei is backing renewable energy coupled with
technology-driven data and intelligence. As Su points out, renewable energy
is much cheaper than fossil-fuel-based options, with a kilowatt-hour of solar
power costing less than a rand in South Africa. It is clear then, that solar power
should – and likely will – play a large role in the world’s future power mix.
That is just one of the reasons why Huawei has invested heavily in
smart photovoltaic (PV) solutions. By integrating AI and Cloud, Huawei
has incorporated its ICT expertise with PV for optimal power generation.
This allows for the construction of highly efficient, safe, and reliable solar
power plants with smart O&M and grid supporting capabilities.
“Huawei is already a household name in the ICT world,” Su says. “All
ICT requires power supply and Huawei has always provided that to
one degree or another. Our efforts in the solar PV space are simply an
extension of that.”
“Over time, Huawei will deploy more and more scalable power stations,”
he adds. “These power stations can be managed and maintained online,
further reducing their carbon footprint.”
“We are uniquely positioned to bring electricity, power supply, and data
management together,” he concludes. “The journey from bits to watts is
accelerating and we plan on leading it.”
On a global basis, the residential sector consumes one fifth
of the world’s energy (IEA 2018:2) and has a large untapped
potential to benefit from the multiple positive economic and
social impacts of energy efficiency. These benefits include increased
disposable income, poverty alleviation, improved health and wellbeing,
better energy security and macro-economic benefits.
Improved energy efficiency means that less energy is used while
maintaining the same level of service or increasing service levels
while maintaining energy use. In the residential context, efficiency
improvements may be affected both by investments in technical
interventions and by changes in behaviour.
According to StatsSA, the residential sector in South Africa comprised of
approximately 16.9-million households in 2016, of which about 86% were
electrified. Electrified households consume roughly 17% of the country’s
total grid electrical energy to provide energy services (DOE 2018:47), the
most significant of which is resistive water heating. During peak periods, the
residential sector accounts for up to 35% of national electricity demand.
South African households are heterogeneous, and electricity use is
not well characterised by averages. Appliance ownership, age, utilisation
patterns and monthly spend on electricity all varies with household
income. Poverty remains high and limits household electricity and
appliance purchases. Almost 55.5% of the population were living below
the Upper-Bound Poverty Line.
The study found that South Africa’s Standards and Labelling
(S&L) Programme was effective in achieving meaningful savings in
appliance energy consumption between 2015 and 2020. The S&L
Programme provides information about an appliance’s energy efficiency
with an easy-to-read label displayed on the front of the appliance.
The initiative will continue to provide energy savings into the future as
appliances reach their end of life, and consumers purchase newer, more
modern and energy efficient appliances. The highest energy savings were
seen in refrigeration by a hefty margin, especially in low- and middleincome
homes.
In 2018, Berkeley Lab developed the South Africa Energy Demand
Resource (EDR) model in The Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP), in
collaboration with the DMRE, SANEDI and the UNDP. The EDR provides a
comprehensive forecast of the energy savings and emissions reductions
that could result from the implementation of minimum energy
performance standards.
DEBATE BUSTERS
• While dishwashers are likely to be more energy efficient than
handwashing, this is only true for a fully-loaded dishwasher.
• Induction stoves often consume large amounts of standby power and
ultimately may consume more energy than an equivalent thermal plate.
• A washing machine’s energy efficiency is typically measured based on
energy used during its longer cycles, which is rarely used in practice.
The more popular shorter and convenient cycle times tend to be less
energy efficient.
READ REPORT
[ECO]NOMIC THOUGHT
greeneconomy/the upshot
TOP 10 TRENDS OF DIGITAL POWER | Power Digitalisation, Creating New
Values | Whitepaper released by Digital Power Industry Work Group, Huawei Technologies
With the rapid development of the digital world, the number of data centers and sites are
increasing rapidly. Digital and intelligent technologies can effectively improve power generation,
maintenance, and energy efficiency, helping to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality.
In the coming decade, digital power will be a vital component in the evolution and upgrade of vast
domains from ICT to electrical vehicles and solar power. Digital power modernisation will be at the
foundation and will be applicable to large diaspora from rural, suburban, and diverse industries
such as mining and smart factories.
In December 2020, a number of authoritative experts and scholars in the digital power industry
established a workgroup to discuss the energy digital transformation, and jointly released the
Whitepaper on “Top 10 Trends of Digital Power” to provide strategic reference for the transformation
and upgrade of the digital power industry.
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READ REPORT
[ECO]NOMIC THOUGHT
greeneconomy/the upshot
RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN SOUTH AFRICA
Research Project Report by SANEDI, DMRE and UCT [May 2021]
In this study the electrical energy consumption of low-, middle- and high-income households
is characterised within a South African Residential Sector LEAP model. Within each of these
income groups, appliance penetration rates together with appliance average annual energy
consumption estimates are used to approximate the national annual electricity consumption
of the sector.
The disaggregation of energy services and appliances within the model, expands upon those of
the EDR model, and includes lighting, cooking, refrigeration, dishwashers, washing machines,
tumble dryers, water heating, space heating, televisions, pool pumps, air conditioning and other
plug loads.
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Survey
findings
LEAP
model
structure
Assessment
of the S&L
programme
Key
recommendations
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