[ 2015-02-09 ]

Use innovative energy strategies to manage power crisis ̶ Enercom Africa boss
Ghana needs to utilise innovative energy
strategies to mitigate the impact of the current
generation shortfalls culminating in the
intermittent disruptions in power supply ̶
says S. O. Nyarko, Founder and President of
Enercom Africa.

Demand-side reserve and response would be one such
innovative strategy that can be used to mitigate
the generation shortfall situation by creating a
proper and coordinated reserve from large energy
users, he has said in an article published below:

Utilise Innovative Energy Strategies To Manage

Ghana’s Power Crisis

Ghana needs to utilise innovative energy
strategies that will help mitigate the impact of
the current generation shortfalls culminating in
the intermittent disruptions in power supply
(‘dumsor dumsor’). Such initiatives will
provide quick wins for all and also eventually
form part of our long term energy management
strategy. It is a known fact that Ghana needs to
increase the generation capacity to bridge the gap
between demand and supply. Numerous deals have
been undertaken recently to increase generation
capacity in the near future. These are very
necessary, but would do little to actually ease
the pain of power interruptions Ghanaians are
going through now. We need some effective measures
too now.

The current load shedding, which has been
intensified from around 400MW to 600MW recently is
not only having adverse impact on residential
consumers, but also small businesses that are
sited within residential enclaves. Key social
infrastructure such as hospitals and educational
institutions are also sometimes affected when
there are spontaneous and sustained interruptions
to power supply caused by system frequency
deviations.

There are however useful and proven innovative
strategies and initiatives that are utilised in
other countries to manage periods of generation
shortfalls and reserve deficit. In the UK for
instance, such innovative strategies and
initiatives provide useful means of balancing and
securing the power system when reserve is eroded
by plant shortfalls and coincident peak demand.

Ghana's current total installed generation
capacity is approximately 2.8GW. However even if
all the installed generation capacity were
available, the derated generation capacity would
be about 2GW. With the current national demand
peak around 2GW, this means that even if all the
installed generation was available, there would
still not be any useful reserve capacity.

Demand-Side Reserve & Response would be one such
innovative strategy that can be used to mitigate
the generation shortfall situation by creating a
proper and coordinated reserve from large energy
users. Such Demand-Side Reserve & Response would
be backed by embedded generation. Providers of the
reserve and response would receive capacity
payments to mitigate any impact on their financial
portfolio and to also avert the social cost of
potential job losses.

This will provide the incentive for large energy
users to reduce or shift some their demand to
other periods or change their consumptions
patterns. The technical and economic benefits of
this innovative strategy would make it useful in
dealing with our current power crisis and also
form part of the long term energy management
strategy. Even in the UK with sufficient reserve
capacity, on average 43% of the current total
operating reserve is sourced from demand side
(demand reduction/shifting and embedded
generation).

Energy innovation projects can also be undertaken
to reduce power system losses and improve network
performance to enhance energy delivery. Ghana
currently has total transmission and distribution
losses of 26%, driven mainly by distribution
losses of approximately 22%. This means that even
if Ghana had 2000MW generation available to meet
our peak demand of around 2000MW, about 500MW
would be still losses. Of the total distribution
losses, technical losses account for 12% and the
remaining are non-technical losses.

The technical losses can be reduced by measures
such as replacement of poor performing assets,
effective constraint management techniques, use of
shunt capacitors, among others.

Non-technical losses can also be reduced using
network monitoring and energy theft detection
technologies. Reduction in total system losses
will improve efficiency and minimise the volume of
load shedding or unserved energy.

Ghana is currently in the top 30 countries with
the highest total transmission and distribution
losses in the world. It should be interesting to
note that Zimbabwe has one of the lowest total
transmission and distribution losses in Africa at
around only 4%; compared to that of Ghana at 26%.
Zimbabwe does have a generation deficit too, and a
slightly different complexity in demand and power
system. But that notwithstanding, about 4% total
transmission and distribution losses is efficient.
South Africa with a much bigger economy, slightly
complex demand and power system has total
transmission and distribution losses of roughly
10%.

If such levels of efficiency in managing power
system losses can be attained by other countries
in Africa, then Ghana can do more to reduce our
total power system losses too. This will go a long
way to mitigate the impact of the current crisis
and also deliver savings for consumers, who are
currently bearing the costs of high inefficiencies
in our power system.

Effective energy efficiency measures can also be
employed to help manage the current power crisis.
The normal approach of using campaigns and other
mechanisms to influence efficient consumer
behaviour is a step in the right direction, but
that alone cannot trigger the much needed changes
in consumption patterns of consumers. Consumers
would be incentivised to reduce or shift some of
their load to off-peak periods if that transforms
into savings on their electricity bills.

A Time-Of-Use tariff system with effective price
sensitivities evidenced by a robust micro-macro
analysis would be a more effective strategy. It
may be a herculean task to roll out Time-of-Use
meters for over 2m residential consumers in Ghana,
but it can surely be done for industrial and large
commercial consumers as an incentive to shift some
of their demand to off-peak periods in return for
savings in their energy costs. Control
technologies can also be used to shift demand load
in a coordinated manner to normalise the demand
profile.

Such innovative energy strategies can help manage
the current power crisis in Ghana by mitigating
the impact of the generation shortfalls, ahead of
additional generation capacity in the near future.
They will also create the platform for building a
more innovative power industry. With the many of
such innovative energy strategies that Enercom
Africa has already proposed to the Ghana power
industry, I am optimistic their implementation
will surely put us on the path to ending the
intermittent power outages (‘dumsor dumsor’).

Source - S. O. Nyarko

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