BITRI On Second Phase Of Renewable Energy
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday July 23, 2018 13:01
This project, which started in 2015, is done in collaboration with Council for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) under the theme ‘Quantifying the financial costs and benefits of renewable energy resources in Botswana’s electricity system’.
According to BITRI, due to its wide-ranging implications for a broad range of stakeholders, the second phase will typically be a consultative process where inputs are sought from various stakeholders.
The second phase of the project will include the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for Batswana thus look at optimising electricity mix for the long term whilst applying least cost planning principles to meet future demand reliably. “This will take into account all existing and future supply/demand side resources to specific locations of need, districts or the rest of the country with an allowance for necessary policy adjustments for environmental, social, and political goals,” BITRI states.
BITRI and CSIR are currently finalising the proposal of the second phase which is intended to examine the electricity sector including generation type, installed capacity, running costs, data collection in terms of long-term electricity demand forecast, economic parameters as well as new demand and supply-side technologies.
The other stage is Data Collection, which will look at long term electricity demand forecast, economic parameters, including cost of Unserved Energy and discount rate, new demand and supply-side technologies, as well as their costs and technical performance characteristics, and the development of scenarios and boundary conditions.
Lastly, the Generation Expansion Planning will encompass least cost optimisation of generation fleet, building a model (using PLEXOS simulation software), planning for outputs, including capacity to build and timeframe, as well as economic and financial analysis of all scenarios.
According to BITRI, the first phase basically provided analysis of the well financial costs and benefits of existing renewable energy sources as well as identified some challenges.
They included minimal solar energy contribution to the electricity mix, slow formulation of policies that would facilitate and promote integration of renewable energy as well as subsidised electricity prices.
“This factor is likely to deter investment in solar energy as it would mean that the price to sell electricity to the power utility will have to bee lowered to match that which result from the subsidy,”
“During the period of study about P3.5million used in fuel and energy imports were saved.
The study also revealed that the presence of renewable can bring some immediate benefits on Botswana power system, being saving on coal fuel and diesel fuel, saving on imports and arrest electricity interruptions, and the concomitant economic costs to electricity customers.