Page 36 - Energize May 2022

VIEWS AND OPINION

Could the existing renewable compliance. This essentially means that most IPPs are currently providing the maximum that
energy plants provide more power they can technically and legally provide.
to the grid than they currently do? In conclusion, the supply of energy is a dynamic and technically complex process,
Many of the renewable plants that are especially in a country where the circumstances are so unique. However, with advances in
connected to the system have installed technology and hopefully more and more support from renewable energy suppliers such as
capacity that is slightly higher than what EGP RSA, the prospect of a national grid with higher levels of renewable energy penetration
they are contracted to produce. This is to is not necessarily an ambition too far off in the future.
cater for the technical capabilities that the
plants need to have in order to meet the *Asante Phiri is Enel Green Power South Africa’s head of operations and maintenance.
requirements for keeping the grid stable Enel Green Power South Africa (EGP RSA) is one of South Africa’s primary independent power
and is referred to as grid code compliance. producers (IPPs).
So, while some IPPs have extra power
at their plants, they are not currently able Contact Enel Green Power South Africa, Phone 010 344-0200,
to supply this to Eskom due to grid code communications.egprsa@enel.com, www.enelgreenpower.com/countries/africa/south-africa

SA’s electricity crisis and its effect on the

working class in townships

he Centre for Sociological Research and Practice (CSRP), which is part of the
Department of Sociology at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), has released
Tits research report titled ‘Energy Racism: The Electricity Crisis in South Africa.’

This research was conducted in the Black working-class township of Soweto and
sought to explore the experiences, responses, and solutions of members of this
community to the energy crisis in South Africa. Using an ethnographic, door-to-door
research methodology, the CSRP research team sought answers to the following
questions:
• How do ordinary township folk experience the electricity crisis?
• What impact does it have on their lives?
• How are they coping with and responding collectively and individually to the crisis?
• What solutions do they offer?

In his foreword, Prof. Patrick Bond, a professor of sociology at the University
of Johannesburg (UJ), says that South Africa’s electricity crisis goes deeper
and beyond Eskom’s notorious unreliability and pollution that annually kills Patrick Bond
thousands of mainly black South Africans prematurely. The government is
complicit, he says, by failing to punish those who looted Eskom for years; and continuation of past racist policies.
for failing to ensure that all South Africans, but especially the poor, receive This report, “Energy Racism Report: The
affordable electricity, generated without poisoning the air and consuming electricity crisis and the working class in
massive amounts of water. According to Prof. Bond, the financing deal, offered South Africa”, was compiled by Maggott, T.,
at COP26 in Glasgow last year is not yet in place because of Eskom’s, the DMRE’s Mbatha, S., Ceruti, C., Moyo, L., Mporo, A.,
and the DFFE’s failure to commit to the required environmentally related changes Ngwane, T., Shezi, C., and Sinwell, L.: Centre
in the generation of electricity. for Sociological Research and Practice
The research results contained in the 83-page long report are captured in the (CSRP), University of Johannesburg, 2022.
concept ‘energy racism’. The researchers found a situation whereby Black working-
class communities are bearing the burden of the electricity crisis. The report suggests Contact Dr Trevor Ngwane, University of
that the criminal neglect of the energy needs of the working class and the poor is a Johannesburg, tngwane@uj.ac.za

energize | May 2022 | 34