Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has reported an uptick in its renewable energy business in South Africa, as the country continues to grapple with load-shedding.
A spokesperson for Huawei Digital Power told ITWeb via e-mail that the company is witnessing a surge in demand for its products from both businesses and households looking to circumvent the adverse effects of power outages.
For several years, power utility Eskom, which supplies the majority of SA’s electricity, has been struggling to maintain a consistent power supply and has had to repeatedly resort to load-shedding.
For the past three weeks, load-shedding has been implemented in varying stages and reached the more severe stage six load-shedding at the end of June due to breakdowns and a strike at power stations.
As the power crisis continues, yesterday the embattled state-owned company said stage three load-shedding (previously communicated stage four) will be implemented from 05:00 to 16:00 on Wednesday and Thursday.
It added that between 16:00 and 00:00 on both days, load-shedding will be implemented at stage four.
Eskom anticipates lower stages of load-shedding to be implemented through the weekend as some units return to service.
Asked about how load-shedding has impacted its business, the Huawei Digital Power spokesperson says: “We are seeing a surge in enquiries and requests. Rising global oil prices and the impact of environmental pollution have further boosted the demand for smart PV [photovoltaic] solutions.
“Over the past decade, we have continuously innovated the smart PV solution with string inverters as the core, promoting the digital and intelligent transformation of the PV industry.”
On the power generation side, the company says it has integrated new ICT technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing with PV to build a smart PV plant capable of safe, reliable and efficient power generation; intelligent operations and maintenance (O&M); as well as grid forming.
On the power consumption side, Huawei has launched a commercial and industrial (C&I) solution for enterprises, which, it says, enables reduced power consumption costs and provides active safety.
It also unveiled a residential solution for households, which generates clean energy for a zero-carbon life.
“This is in addition to our smart string energy storage system solutions, which overcome the consistency and reliability problems inherent to lithium batteries,” the spokesperson says.
“With a modular design, the new smart string energy storage system increases the discharge capacity, reduces O&M costs, ensures safety and reliability, maximises investment returns, and achieves a 20% reduction in LCOS [levelised cost of storage].
According to the firm, the Huawei smart PV business in the Southern Africa region continued to grow rapidly this year, and its annual revenue is expected to more than double.
“In the utility scenario, we will work with our clients to build a showcase of solar plant with energy storage system in Ghana. In the C&I scenario, Huawei will continue to maintain its leading position and distribute more than 400MW through channel partners.
“In the residential scenario, we expect to provide our Fusionsolar residential solution to more than 10 000 households, helping them obtain stable, green power supply and a good home electricity experience.
“In addition, we will launch a next-generation micro-grid solution this year, to help customers in Africa (such as campuses, hotels, universities, etc) improve power outages and reduce diesel generator usage.”
The company also notes the growing data centre market in SA is presenting huge opportunities for Huawei Digital Power.
“There has been a massive increase in demand for PV integration with diesel generators, in order to reduce the amount of fuel used and to prolong the lifespan of diesel generators,” the spokesperson says.
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