Managing Director at G7 Renewable Energies, Kilian Hagemann speaking at Windaba said: “The RMI4P was launched to respond to a specific need of the current South African power mix, that of dispatchable power, where typically peaker plants such as gas-powered plants are used.
“Dispatchable power is there to address the sporadic need for peak energy that may occur either in the case of a large breakdown in the pool of power plants feeding into the grid or in the case of peak demand in the grid when reserve capacity is low. To fulfil such a need a dispatchable facility needs to show reliable power output at any time during agreed dispatch windows. As renewable energy is variable in nature, it becomes key to combine diverse energy sources and technologies and use their complementarities to form a hybrid facility.”
One of the most exciting projects to come out of this bid round is no doubt the 128MW Oya Energy Hybrid Facility, which is a co-located set up, incorporating wind turbines, solar PV arrays, batteries and a hybrid controller to provide dispatchable power to the grid as and when needed.
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