Backup power financing for homes

This year has been the worst ever for load-shedding in South Africa, and we are only entering the last quarter! Since 2018, load-shedding has increased annually, a trend that is expected to continue for the next five years. It is evident that load shedding will persist until at least 2030 due to the government’s absence of a comprehensive backup power strategy.

Government-announced and-funded efforts do not include the building of large-scale electricity generating capable of meeting nighttime peak demand.

Register with Hohm Energy to develop a personalised solar proposal within 5 minutes and have access to the MFC solar financing product from Nedbank.

Recently, our president discussed incentivizing homes to install solar panels, reducing red tape for private enterprises to connect to the grid, and tripling the anticipated capacity in bid window 6 of the REIPPP programme to 5200MW.

The elephant in the room is that these initiatives and other planned major renewable power production projects will not significantly help to satisfying evening peak demand. Within the next five years, the five oldest power plants will be shut down.

By 2035, fifty percent of South Africa’s overall generating capacity will be decommissioned, totaling 22,000 MW. Consequently, despite the implementation of renewable energy projects, we face a drastically decreased supply capacity in the near future.

Despite this bleak picture, homeowners may now take solace in the fact that there is really a figurative light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel regarding their energy security. This month, Nedbank’s MFC Division unveiled an unique asset-based solar finance product that makes acquiring a solar system as simple as financing a vehicle.

Even if you’re not a Nedbank customer or don’t have a Nedbank bond, you may apply for the offering’s low and flexible financing alternatives for solar systems for your house.

The ‘green’ bank has teamed with Hohm Energy, a digital online solar marketplace that simplifies, improves, and reduces the cost for South Africans to have access to dependable, high-quality solar solutions. Over the next 12 months, the alliance intends to deliver over 3,000 solar loans and installations.

Similar to other online marketplaces, Hohm Energy is bringing technological innovation to the solar and renewables markets by matching homeowners with pre-screened solar providers in their region.

This eliminates the need for individuals to shop around and then individually evaluate the installers who supply quotations. Hohm’s Energy Advisor service model streamlines the management of the whole process from A to Z for homes, providing reliable guidance at each stage.

Hohm Energy has joined with the PV Greencard programme of SAPVIA (The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association) and offers complete background checks and onboarding services for qualified solar installers to access the Nedbank MFC financing product.

The present network of solar installers works in all nine provinces of South Africa and is expanding. To satisfy demand, Hohm Energy is quickly growing and all solar installers are invited to become authorised.

Register with Hohm Energy to develop a personalised solar proposal within 5 minutes and have access to the MFC solar financing product from Nedbank.

12-month projection for load-shedding

At Eskom’s quarterly media briefing in March of this year, we were provided with three possible scenarios for the following 12 months, from April 2022 to April 2023.

In their worst-case scenario of 13,500 to 15,000 Megawatts (MW) falling out, South Africa would face 295 days of load shedding. In May, it was predicted that there will be 22 days of stage 2 load shedding.

What really transpired, however, was that May alone had 25 days of load-shedding, with stage 4 power outages. When considering the entire number of load-shedding hours, the popular app Eskom Se Push tweeted the real number of load-shedding hours experienced.

In July, we had already exceeded the load shedding experienced in 2021, which is noteworthy. Considering the accumulated hours of load shedding from month to month, it is evident that 2022 has shattered all prior records.

Taking into consideration these trends and the fact that the government’s action plan will not begin providing electricity to the grid until 2024, it is expected that load-shedding will occur an average of three out of every five days during the next year.

Five-year perspective

In the next five years, both the price of power and load shedding are anticipated to quadruple. In that time, the five oldest power plants, with a combined production capacity of 7,885 MW, will cease operations.

They provide barely half of their entire capacity due to their poor performance. Their average contribution to the grid is 3,900 MW, which equates to four stages of load-shedding (at 1,000 MW each stage) or 12% of total nighttime peak demand of 32 000 MW.

The huge energy production projects that the government has planned will account for less than one-fifth of the nighttime power loss. The majority of projects are big solar or wind farms with little battery storage.

Solar farms without battery storage do not help to meeting evening peak energy demand since solar farms generate the most electricity during the middle of the day.

Wind farms are even less successful at satisfying demand, since wind performance is often below 20% of rated generating capacity. With a stronger breeze in the early morning hours.

The most dependable and simple option for households

Eskom can no longer be relied on to deliver inexpensive, consistent energy. As a nation with abundant sunlight, we are well-positioned to take advantage of inexpensive solar energy production; thus, it makes perfect sense to explore solar and battery options for powering our houses.

In addition, the cost of the equipment required to produce residential power has decreased by at least 90 percent over the last 15 years, making now the most inexpensive moment to minimise your dependency on Eskom.

Ciko Thomas, group managing executive of Nedbank Retail and Business Banking, argues that solar solutions have shown to be an efficient method for homes to shift off Eskom’s unstable grid, or at the very least reduce their reliance on the failing power supplier.

Nedbank has just introduced solar energy financing, which is accessible to everyone, even non-clients.

Thomas notes that the price of solar energy systems has decreased dramatically over the previous several years, with certain solar photovoltaic (PV) components decreasing in price by as much as 90 percent during the past 15 years.

Nedbank said, “Our new asset-backed solar finance solution, provided through MFC, is available to anyone wanting to install a solar energy solution on their property, no matter who their mortgage bond is with, or even if their property isn’t bonded at all”.

“We have elected to team up with trusted energy partners Hohm Energy, who will help our clients with expert guidance through the entire process of assessing their energy requirements, finding a solution that fits their needs, overseeing the installation and providing after-installation support,” said Thomas

Register with Hohm Energy to develop a personalised solar proposal within 5 minutes and have access to the MFC solar financing product from Nedbank.

While the future of South Africa’s electricity supply remains unknown, one thing is certain: load-shedding is here to stay, and a complete blackout with Stage 10 load-shedding is not implausible.

Installing a dependable, trustworthy solar system now is the best way to prevent Eskom’s growing load shedding schedule and tariff price hikes in the coming decades.