The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber’s newly established Renewable Energy Cluster has ignited significant interest from some of the Metro’s largest energy users who have now joined forces to explore alternative energy solutions to help sustain their operations.
This has been necessitated by operational inefficiencies at Eskom which negatively impact business operations across the country due to continued loadshedding, as well as a broader requirement in response to climate change which is necessitating the reduction of carbon footprint by companies across the country.
The cluster, which is a collaborative initiative in South Africa, comprises 23 industrial users in Nelson Mandela Bay, including most of the largest manufacturers in the automotive, steel and agri sectors.
The main objective of the cluster is to find renewable energy solutions which can be adopted by these businesses as a collective and which may also complement other sources of power.
As part of the initial phase of the initiative, discussions took place with a number of renewable energy companies (Independent Power Producers and Electricity Traders), that have the capacity and are well positioned to supply diverse renewable energy solutions.
These companies have been engaged to fulfil such function within the South African regulatory framework of electricity distribution.
“The reality of tenuous electricity supply in South Africa has begun to shape a constructive response from the business community. The initiative seeks to secure electricity on a permanent and continued basis for industrial users in the Nelson Mandela Bay region. Furthermore, there is a need amongst some of the users to decarbonise their energy sources by increasing their usage of renewable power in their production processes, thereby reducing their carbon footprint. The decision to engage Electricity Traders is informed by the requirement for flexible contracting which provides for periods where users within the Cluster would experience low internal offtake at their respective sites,” says Mpumelelo Mdhladhla, Chairperson of the Renewable Energy Cluster.