Nelson Mandela Bay will soon enjoy the benefits of more efficient energy.

An innovative programme of renewable energy projects was launched on Tuesday by the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.

After months of negotiations to finalise the detailed contracts, the metro signed contracts to kick-start four renewable energy projects.

These are a breakthrough for the citizens of Nelson Mandela Bay in the current power crisis situation. It means that citizens and businesses will be able to enjoy the benefits of energy savings and additional power that is friendly to the environment.

A consortium of companies, led by Lereko Sustainability and the Central Energy Fund, has put together the finishing details on four main projects. These are:

 A city wide energy saving programme that will cut down electricity consumption by up to 20%;

 A solar water geyser project that will provide hot water to the citizens of Nelson Mandela Bay;

 Electricity generation projects using gas emitted from Nelson Mandela Bay’s waste material landfills and sewage treatment plants.

The consortium is also planning to roll out a wind farm and small scale hydro electricity project in the near future.

The consortium is led by CEF (Pty) Ltd, a state owned entity that is responsible, amongst others, for investing in renewable energy projects. It consists of a number of service providers who will be responsible for rolling out different projects, as well as the Straits Utilities, who will be responsible for the Fish Water Flats sewerage project. The consortium is known as the Lereko Consortium, named after the black empowerment company that initiated the programme of renewable energy projects in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The current NMBMM demand of 610 mega watt (MW) is expected to increase to between 2,500 and 3,000 MW over the next ten years - this means that all possible sources of power need to be tapped to meet the anticipated shortfall.

The municipality has committed itself to investigating alternative sources of energy and assessing the different technology options available. This is in line with National Government’s target of 10 000 giga-watt hours (GWh) by 2013. The renewable energy initiative also supports metro Integrated

Development Plan (IDP) targets of eliminating electrification backlogs and ensuring that at last 75% of newly built subsidy houses have electricity.

Renewable energy projects have tended to be more expensive than conventional energy. However the consortium has used a combination of international and national funding, carbon finance, Demand Side Management subsidies and other grants to make the renewable energy affordable to the metro.

Solar geyser programme

The solar geyser programme will provide hot water, heated by the sun’s rays, to individual households, commercial complexes and industry. The programme uses a well established technology, which has already been tested in thousands of households and businesses around South Africa. Customers of the metro will be free to choose to participate in the programme. Those that do will have a solar water heater installed on their roof. They will pay a monthly fee for the hot water that generated by the sun.

Mark Tanton, the developmental manager of the EDC, a division of CEF commented: “CEF is currently responsible for a national solar water heating project in partnership with the DME, Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Information that has come out of this project indicates that approximately 40% of a domestic consumer’s electricity bill can be directly attributed to their electrical geysers. There is clearly huge potential to save large amounts of energy, not to mention emissions from fossil fuels, if this energy were to be supplied from a renewable source such as the sun. At CEF we have been investigating ways in which we could roll out Solar Water Heaters on a large scale nationally. This initiative in Port Elizabeth is the first time that I feel this vision of ours can actually become a reality.”

A phased approach has been proposed with an optimistic target of 100,000 households having solar water heater (SWH) units installed over a six year period. The 100,000 households would typically consume 17 million litres of hot water per day which in turn would consume 1,100 giga-watt hours (GWh) of electricity per annum. This will result in a net energy saving for the metro. Additional or new energy equivalent to 130 GWh will be supplied to indigent and low-income households.

It is anticipated that we consumers will have to brace themselves for an 18% increase in the electricity price in the near future. Households taking part in this programme stand to drastically reduce their utility bill, the magnitude of this saving will only increase with the inevitable increases we will be facing in the price of electricity.

For the delivery of the SWH to occur, a contract will be signed between the service provider and the ultimate consumer, the household. The cost of the solar geyser will be recovered through the NMBMM’s current utility charge collection mechanism.

If such a programme is implemented on a large scale it will also stimulate the increase of local production of these systems, with a positive employment effect.

Energy efficiency programme

The consortium will be rolling out a metropolitan wide energy saving programme, which will cut electricity consumption in the metro by up to 20% - this will make a huge contribution to current power shortages and at the same time save money for the city and its customers. The consortium has analysed the existing electrical supply, transmission network and systems, and has developed interventions that either save electricity or shift electricity demand to off-peak periods. Peak demand management does not necessarily decrease total energy consumption, but it does reduce the need for investments in networks and/or power plants.

The interventions planned for the metro include:

 Providing public lighting more efficiently, through low voltage bulbs and dimming or switching off lights that aren’t needed;

 Cutting electricity consumption in municipal buildings, focusing on insulation, variable speed drives, air conditioners and lighting;

 Improving the efficiency of pumping sewage and water, and at sewage treatment plants;

 Cutting domestic energy consumption through measures such as better insulation, water saving shower heads, low voltage bulbs, and gas stoves;

 Power alert monitoring, allowing the metro to better cope with rolling blackouts.

A Demand Side Management (DSM) agreement has been signed with the NMBMM which allows the consortium to supply, commission and install, at its own cost a range of DSM measures. These will generate savings in electricity within the municipality. For each DSM measure there is an analysis of the operational and business centres in order to establish the existing baseline consumption, then identification of and agreement on energy saving measures, followed by the implementation of these measures and the measurement of the saving. The savings achieved are shared between the service provider and the client.

The DSM projects will be implemented as per an agreed roll-out schedule, with the measuring and verification of the savings being authenticated and the savings shared between the Municipality and the service provider in the ratios ultimately agreed upon.

Generating electricity from waste

The consortium will generate renewable energy from waste in landfills in and around the Metro, as well as from the sewage treatment plant at Fishwater Flats.

Landfill gas is generated through the decomposition of refuse in a landfill and results in the collection of methane, which is a potent green house gas. It has a global warming potential of twenty–one times that of CO2. The methane can be either flared in order to reduce the emission of green house gases or it can be used to generate electricity.

The process of extracting the gas from landfills is relatively uncomplicated when carried out by experienced technical personnel. Gas collections wells are placed into the waste body. These wells are connected to centralized gas headers, which in turn are connected to a flare. Once accurate measurements of the gas have been obtained, a generator will be attached to generate electricity.

There are two landfill sites within the municipality which have sufficient methane gas to generate electrical power. The two sites together have the potential capacity to generate 3 to 4.7 MWe per annum between 2008 and 2020 as follows:

 Arlington Refuse Site 1.7 to 2.7 MWe p.a. (2008 to 2020)

 Koedoeskloof Refuse Site 1.3 to 2.0 MWe p.a. (2008 to 2020)

Another element of the initiative is the off take of methane from the Fish Water Flats sewerage reclamation works. A Bio-digester plant is to be installed in line with the existing Fishwater Flats effluent stream which will convert the effluent to a sludge which can then be dried and ignited in order to drive an electrical generator. The deactivated sludge is also able to be used for the making of bricks or to cap landfill sites. The bio-digestion process extracts all of the methane gas from the effluent and this is used to drive the electrical generation plant. The methane extracted per day amounts to approximately 8,000 to 18,000 cubic metres.

The heat used for the generation of electricity will also be used to drive a water purification plant which is capable of treating approximately thirty million litres of water per day and process either high quality industrial water or demineralised water. This water can be fed back into the municipal supply system.

The bio-digester is able to use the methane gas and the deactivated sludge to provide combustion to drive the electrical generators. At the current volumes of waste water and effluent being treated by the plant, calculations indicate that approximately one to two megawatt of power can be generated per year.

The electricity generated from both these projects will be added to the local electricity supply grid. Such initiatives will have a positive impact on the environment, energy resources as well as job creation in domestic projects and business.

Other renewable energy initiatives

CEF is looking into the possibility of adding two more renewable energy projects to the above programme. The first is a wind energy project, to be built at the Arlington landfill site near Schoenmakerskop. The wind speeds are optimal at this site, and it is planned to establish large wind turbines up to 40 metre high which could generate up to 20MW of power. This will be the largest wind farm of its kind to date in South Africa. With NMBMM being labelled the windy city, this will be the most viable site in the country for implementation.

The other project is a set of small scale hydro power projects along the Orange – Fish – Sundays river transfer scheme, as well as on the municipality’s Kouga dam. There is the potential to generate up to 20MW of power from these hydro projects. CEF will shortly be submitting detailed proposals to the metro for both the wind and hydro power projects.

Conclusion

CEF and the Lereko Sustainability Consortium are proud to be associated with this visionary and pioneering renewable energy project, which will assist the Metro in achieving its energy and developmental targets and the country in meeting a growing energy crisis.