A mini-integrated resource plan for a commercial entity in Gauteng Province: Planning for energy autonomous businesses

Distributed renewable energy competitiveness is becoming a reality in most countries resulting in an increase of installed capacity in both developed and developing countries. Mexico, India, Germany, Zambia and South Africa have experienced the lowest average tariffs for solar photovoltaic (PV) through their competitive bidding processes between 2015 and 2017. In South Africa, the latest competitive bid resulted in PV costing an average of R0.62/kWh, while the average grid electricity tariff is R0.83/kWh. It is anticipated that the cost of PV will continue to decline while grid connected electricity tariffs will continue to increase. The continued increase of electricity tariffs combined with declining cost of solar PV, means that PV will become even more competitive for commercial entities whose periods of maximum power demand coincides with periods of abundant solar resource in most regions. This means that campuses or buildings of most entities can be energy autonomous and can supply their electricity demand using PV at least cost. This paper conducts a mini-integrated resource plan using PLEXOS modelling tool for a commercial entity located in Gauteng with a peak capacity of 6MW. The results show that investing in optimal PV capacity by 2030 reduces the network costs by 11%. The entity can also meet 44% of its energy demand with PV which reduces the energy bill by 14% in 2030.