Eskom: electrification program for South Africa

Situation
Eskom is South Africa's wholly state-owned electricity utility. It has 24 power stations with a nominal capacity of 40.585 megawatts and is one of the lowest cost producers of electricity in the world. The company supplies electricity to over three million customers via 306 thousand km of transmission and distribution lines.

Eskom supplies approximately 95% of the country's electricity; however, before 1994 only 12% of the rural population in South Africa had access to electricity. Electrification is a priority in the region as a whole and as part of a committed electrification program for South Africa, the South African government, the electricity distribution industry and Eskom committed to electrifying 2.5 million households by the year 2000.

Targets
Eskom committed itself to connect 1 750 000 homes between 1994 and the year 2000. The implications of this were as follows:

• Connection every 30 sec, pole every 10secs, 200m cable/minute, payment and invoice of R6000/minute
• Every year 1000 projects with 200 running simultaneously had to be managed

In addition, a joint venture between Eskom and Shell International Renewables Ltd was initiated, targeting electrification for about 50 000 homes in isolated South African rural communities.

Actions
Since the start of the electrification initiative, Eskom has invested more than 7.5 billion Rand (approximately 1 billion US dollars) in electrification projects and electrified 1,000 homes per day.

This required a substantial and co-ordinated effort on the part of Eskom. Some of the problems encountered were as follows:

• Cost per connection was too high
• Alack of community interaction about the program
• Non-payment by recipients under the initial scheme

As a result, a comprehensive programme examining how to overcome these difficulties was undertaken, including more comprehensive community interaction programmes and the development of the pre-payment meter. To counter the problem of costs associated with greater distances from the established grid, there are new initiatives to promote the use of non-grid energy such as solar power. The Eskom/Shell joint venture project involves the installation of a pre-paid solar system with battery storage. The solar system utilised features four high-efficiency fluorescent lights and an outlet for direct current black and white television and a radio. Local shops are used as the outlets for the purchase of pre-payment cards and local people are trained to do the system installation and maintenance, thus promoting job creation in the communities.

Results
A committed electrification programme has resulted in the electrification of approximately 1,000 homes per day, with 2,135,661 homes been electrified since the beginning of the electrification programme in 1991. This has significant environmental implications from both a natural and social perspective. To date 6,000 solar systems have been installed through the Eskom/Shell joint venture. The success of the project was due to the combined efforts of the private sector, a public utility, Transitional Local Government and the local rural communities.

The provision of electricity leads to job creation, and a subsequent rise in disposable income in a community. Electrification of schools and houses is highly likely to lead to increased education and productivity levels. The supply of electricity can lead to a decrease in the harvesting of firewood with resultant biodiversity implications, and a decrease in respiratory disease due to the reduction of biomass burning. The relative efficiency of using electricity will reduce the overall emission of pollutan ts caused and lead to an improved quality of life. Studies have shown that electrification reduces the level of ambient air pollution and a reduction in related respiratory diseases.

Thus some of the more specific socio-economic benefits of electrification are:

• Job creation through FDI in energy intensive manufacturing
• New employment opportunities
• Small business development
• Appliances
• Shops
• Welding
• Hair salons
• Change of life style
• Refrigeration
• Extended hours
• Access to communications
• Improved security
• Improved education levels
• Rural development
• GDP increases
• Knock-on impacts
• Improved quality of life
• Access to modern technology
• Reduced local air pollution levels
• Major health benefits through fewer paraffin burns and poisoning, as well as vaccine refrigeration, water pasteurisation and a decrease in respiratory disease.

Electrification may not bring about immediate results in as improvements take place over a number of years.

Another achievement was the reduction in the cost per connection. The graph below details the reduction in cost, thereby assisting in bringing affordable electricity to communities.

It was the introduction of a detailed planning, design and project management process as well as detailed standard technical building blocks and indicators that have made the achievement of 1.5 million connections in 5 years with an accompanying 50% reduction in cost possible. Some of the technical innovations were the development of a series of structures and conductor cable types that were readily available and allowed for easy construction at lower cost. This lead to the development of a range of"building blocks" which could be used to design and construct electrification projects as in a production line. It was also necessary to define the parameters by which networks were designed and match that to the load demanded by the inhabitants.

Measures were also devised by which to assess designs and determine if they were on target, or needed rework. It was estimated that these measures reduced the cost per connection by approximately 20%. The Eskom-Shell Solar Home System Ltd South Africa was selected as a winner of the international Climate Technology Initiative (CTI) Leadership Award during 2000.

Lessons learned

Some of the lessons learned are as follows:

• The projects need to undertaken in a holistic manner
• It is not possible to separate planning and project management. Continual re-planning is required as well as defined targets and a technology plan
• A centralised approach is required for planning
• Customer knowledge is essential
• Standards must be based on proven pilots. Innovation is done during the pilot phase
• Standards provide building blocks, and allow the matching of tariffs and technology to customer requirements
• Tariffs and revenue collection are critical and must tie in to technology and culture.
• Non-grid options need to be integrated in a controlled manner (grid utility greater)

Over 90% of urban areas are now electrified and more than 40% of rural areas. Eskom has committed itself to an addition three year target of a further 600 000 connections, giving more attention to rural areas.