Green Economy Journal Issue 59

NEWS & SNIPPETS
REVIEW OF WORLD ENERGY
The Energy Institute and partners KPMG and Kearney recently
released the 72nd annual edition of the Statistical Review of
World Energy*. Global energy data themes for 2022, include:
Primary energy
• Primary energy demand growth slowed in 2022, increasing 1.1%,
compared to 5.5% in 2021, and taking it to around 3% above the
2019 pre-Covid level.
• Renewables’ share of primary energy consumption reached 7.5%,
an increase of nearly 1% over the previous year.
Carbon emissions
• Carbon dioxide emissions from energy use, industrial processes,
flaring and methane (in carbon dioxide equivalent terms)
continued to rise to a new high growing 0.8% in 2022 to
39.3GtCO2e, with emissions from energy use rising 0.9% to
34.4GtCO2.
• In contrast, carbon dioxide emissions from flaring decreased
by 3.8% and emissions from methane and industrial processes
decreased by 0.2%.
Renewables
• Renewable power rose 14% in 2022 to reach 40.9EJ. This was
slightly below the previous year’s growth rate of 16%.
• Solar and wind capacity continued to grow rapidly in 2022
recording a record increase of 266GW. Solar accounted for 72%
(192GW) of the capacity additions.
Electricity
• Global electricity generation increased by 2.3% in 2022 which was
lower than the previous year’s growth rate of 6.2%.
• Wind and solar reached a record high of 12% share of power
generation with solar recording 25% and wind power 13.5%
growth in output.
• Coal remained the dominant fuel for power generation in 2022,
with a stable share around 35.4%.
• Natural gas-fired power generation remained stable in 2022 with a
share of around 23%.
• Renewables (excluding hydro) met 84% of net electricity demand
growth in 2022.
SCATEC ACCELERATES GROWTH
Release by Scatec signed an agreement to raise USD102-million
in funding from Climate Fund Managers to further accelerate
its growth ambitions. Release was established by Scatec ASA
in 2019 to offer a flexible leasing solution of pre-assembled
and modular solar and battery equipment for the mining and
utilities market.
The company invested in Release via its Climate Investor
One fund; a blended finance vehicle focused on renewable
energy infrastructure in emerging markets. CFM will contribute
USD55-million in equity for a 32% stake in Release. Scatec will
retain the majority shareholding of 68%. CFM will also provide
shareholder loans totalling USD47-million, part of which will be
on concessional terms.
Release is experiencing good traction in the market,
particularly towards African utilities. It has projects in operation
and under construction in Cameroon, South Africa, Mexico and
South Sudan with a total capacity of 47MW solar PV and 20MWh
of battery storage and has additional contracts for 35MW solar
PV and 20MWh of storage in Chad, in addition to maturing its
advanced pipeline.
Release will replicate its rapid deployment model to address
shortfalls in local grid power supplies throughout the region.
“The new shareholder funding will be supplemented by Release
through additional debt and guarantee facilities that are currently
in advanced negotiations. This gives us the financial foundation we
need to meet the strong demand for our flexible leasing model, for
easily deployable renewable power plants,” says Release CEO, Hans
Olav Kvalvaag.
Release will be accounted for as a joint venture investment in the
group accounts of Scatec, which will generate an accounting gain
of approximately USD40-million in the consolidated financials at
closing. Closing of the transaction is expected in the third quarter
of 2023, subject to customary conditions precedent.
LICENCE TO OPERATE
National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has
approved that the National Transmission Company of South
Africa Limited (NTC) be issued with a licence to operate a
transmission system within South Africa.
“The NTC is envisioned to be an independent transmission
system operator incorporating, inter alia, the currently nonlicensable
but integrated functions of network provision, system
operation and planning.
“The NTC’s independence is an important signal to all
stakeholders, including investors that they will have nondiscriminatory
access to the transmission system,” NERSA said.
Furthermore, the NTC is responsible for ensuring grid
stability, to which end, it is allowed to buy and sell power, but
not for profit. The NTC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eskom,
which was established as per government objectives and will
perform the following key integrated roles to ensure the integrity
of the interconnected power system:
• Transmission Network Service Provider
• System Operator
• Transmission System Planner
• Grid Code Secretariat
NEWS & SNIPPETS
COMMUNICATION TECH AND SUSTAINABLE GRIDS
A white paper released by Huawei and IDC has underlined how significant communication
technologies will be in building the sustainable, carbon neutral energy grids of the future.
The white paper, titled “On Electric Power Communication All-
Optical Network, Accelerating Digital Transformation of Electric
Power”, was released at the Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Electric
Power Summit, which formed part of Enlit Africa 2023. It outlines
how the power communication network is the basis for automatic
power grid dispatching, market-oriented network operations and
modernised management. Such a network is an important means
to ensure stable and economical operations of the power grid as
well as the core infrastructure of the power system.
“Digital technologies are vital to leading the transition to a
more sustainable energy sector,” said Victor Guo, president of
Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Enterprise Business Group. Using
the expertise it has gained from more than three decades in the
communication sector, he added that Huawei is ideally placed to
“pave a digital way to a global energy transition.”
Edwin Diender, chief innovation officer, global electric power
digitalisation business unit, Huawei Technologies concurred.
“Energy transition and digital technology combined are able to
drive us towards carbon neutrality,” he said. “We want to leverage
our experience in the worldwide web of communications into a
worldwide web of energy.”
According to Diender, achieving that will require a mindset
shift from many players in the energy sector. “Where having a
smart grid is often the end-stage for the energy industry and
electric power companies, we see much more potential,” he said.
“With such aspiration, the information of the power grid becomes
more significant, more meaningful. And this digital journey will
lead to more sustainable future power systems.”
“We’re looking at capabilities from our past and seeing how
they can be applied to the energy sector,” he added.
Energy transition
and digital technology
combined are able
to drive us towards
carbon neutrality.
Huawei releases the white paper at Enlit 2023.
As Wenchen Wang, solution manager of transmission and access,
pointed out, the organisation is ideally positioned to do so.
“Huawei makes full use of its technological prowess to
continuously explore the electric power industry,” she said.
“Together with the upstream and downstream of the industry
chain, it has provided secure, stable, and reliable all-optical
communication network solutions for countries and regions such
as China, Thailand, Brazil, the UAE and Austria, accelerating the
digital transformation of the electric power industry and reshaping
industry productivity.”
Diender added that utilities need to embrace that digital
transformation is an ongoing journey that can’t be achieved as a
one-off project or by adopting specific technologies. That journey
starts with digitisation (the switching from analogue to digital
meters), moves on to digitalisation (building a network of smart
meters), and ultimately results in full digital transmission (which
might look like having full digital twins of every meter on the grid).
As Diender noted, a lot of existing communications technology
can be repurposed to ensure a more sustainable, carbon
neutral grid. “Parts of this journey have not been taken yet, but
a lot of work has already been done,” he said. “There’s a lot of
communication technology already within the energy industry.”
Taking this approach, he said, could also open new revenue
streams for utilities. They could, for example, use the technological
backbone needed for digital transformation to become fibre to
the home (FTTH) provider in partnership with internet service
providers. There is also potential from a data perspective.
But for that technology to be used effectively and sustainably,
partnerships will be crucial. “Alone you can go very fast, but
together you can go much further,” he concluded.
*The Statistical Review of World Energy has been published by bp since 1952. It was announced in
February that it would pass to the Energy Institute, KPMG and Kearney.
Edwin Diender, Chief Innovation Officer, Global Electric
Power Digitalisation Business Unit, Huawei Technologies.
Victor Guo, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Enterprise
Business Group.
6 7