Study Tour: A Delegation of South African Energy Leaders enriched by an immersive Tour on Australia’s Energy Transition

At the tail end of 2023, the South African-German Energy Programme (SAGEN) implemented a much-anticipated study tour to Australia from 9 to16 December 2023 with the support of Prof Anton Eberhard (UCT Power Futures Lab). The tour aimed to facilitate knowledge and experience sharing between South African delegates involved in driving reforms in the power sector and Australian host institutions and experts involved in three areas of critical importance to South Africa: energy transition, power sector reform, and managing increased share of renewable energy on electricity distribution industry (EDI). SAGEN was represented by Lilian Laurisch (Head of Programme) and Clifford Rikhotso (Technical Advisor for Energy Policy and Regulation). The South African delegation comprised representatives from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa(NERSA), National Treasury (NT), Eskom, South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and three metropolitan municipalities leading transformation of municipal electricity distribution utility models; the City of Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Metro and eThekwini Metro Municipalities.

First Leg of Tour

The programme kicked-off in Victoria, Melbourne from 11 to 13 December, where the University of Victoria facilitated insightful exchanges between delegates and representatives from seven esteemed institutions at the heart of driving transformation in the energy landscape of the Australian state of Victoria. The seven institutions include the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action, the Australian Energy Regulator, Cadency Consulting, VicGrid, CityPower, and SwitchDin, a provider of cutting-edge energy management solutions.

Second Half of Tour

From 14 December, the delegates descended upon Adelaide where they visited NRG Solar R&D Facility, South Australia Power Networks, and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to learn from their work on the aggregation, integration, and management of high levels of distributed energy resources on the grid. Finally, the study tour concluded in Sydney, New South Wales with presentations and engagements from the Australia Energy Markets Commission.

Through a series of engagements and exchanges, key areas of focus emerged as priority areas for effective integration and management of increasing levels of renewable energy resources:

  • Congestion management and curtailment compensation
  • Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS)
  • Incentivising rooftop solar
  • Rooftop solar and renewable energy credits
  • Virtual power plants
  • Community battery schemes
  • Energy arbitrage and
  • Tariff restructuring.

This particularly applied to wind and solar energy being integrated into the electricity grid in the context of energy transition and reforming power sector driven by markets and competition.  For Nhlanhla Ngidi (Head of Electricity and Energy, SALGA) a highlight of the study tour was ‘[seeing] how the Australian market revealed some of the endless business model opportunities for municipalities... [although they] are unable to procure generation due to their financial challenges, it doesn’t mean that municipalities cannot be players in the energy market. The future looks exciting!’ The lessons learned from these themes will provide basis for possible follow-up activities as part of the outcomes of the study tour.

SAGEN collaborates with South African partners to support the country’s transition to a reliable, affordable and clean energy future. SAGEN is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), co-funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in cooperation with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), the National Treasury (NT), Eskom, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI).

Authors: Nobantu Modise, nobantu.modise@giz.de and Clifford Rikhotso

Photo Credits: © GIZ/Clifford Rikhotso

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