How battery power storage can cut SA business energy costs by 30%

Yellow Door Energy has suggested how battery energy storage solutions can benefit South African companies suffering the crippling effects of load-shedding.

This comes as countless businesses across the country are suffering huge financial losses due to the unplanned additional cost of diesel for running generators to help mitigate against interruptions caused by power outages. 

Speaking at the Africa Energy Indaba, Mohamed Madhi, country director at Yellow Door Energy, said Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) can help companies embark on an on-site power plant or to receive power from a wheeled off-site power plant with no capital outlay, while immediately benefiting from cheaper power. 

He said there was another solution that can address the more immediate crippling effects of the blackouts.

“The decade of the battery has arrived. In under five years since 2020, battery energy storage (BES) costs would have reduced by more than 40%, making this a feasible option.” 

According to Madhi, BES is a sustainable long-term solution available in the short-term and offers big cost savings, greater flexibility and a smooth transition of power. 

“BES will typically save businesses around 30% in energy costs compared to running a diesel generator. That’s a significant saving.

“The past decade was all about solar, and solar will continue, but the long-term solution is going to be a combination of solar, wind and battery storage,” said Madhi. 

He said companies can reduce their dependency on the grid by installing solar and combining it with a BES solution.

Solar power installers charge between R60,000 and R200,000 for panels and installation, according to a study by Procompare, an online platform connecting clients with local professionals. 

Procompare looked at national data on load-shedding collected by the EskomSePush app, the number of requests for solar panel installation submitted on its site and the volume of Google searches for “solar panels” in South Africa. 

It said the record numbers of load-shedding hours last year forced homeowners and businesses to search for alternative energy sources outside buying batteries and generators. 

“Beside batteries, which can store energy from the grid, and generators, which can produce electricity during an outage, solar power seems to be the renewable source of choice.”

According to Procompare, solar power installers started profiting after two load-shedding peaks. 

“The demand for solar systems more than doubled in June and July, which corresponds to the first peak of Eskom outages between the end of June and the first half of July,” it said. 

“The demand fell sharply in August, when there were fewer outages, but picked up again in early September, along with a record number of disruptions of electricity supply. 

“Even though the winter months are over, when the demand for photovoltaics usually slows down, requests for solar panels are nearing all-time highs again.”