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Monday, September 9, 2013

Electricity Questions 2012-03-04

What would the cost of Coal, Hydro, Nuclear, energy be if all subsidies were removed? Would Nuclear be viable, considering that governments underwrite nuclear accidents?

What if the 3.5 cent electricity levy was used for Renewable Energy (RE) rebates?  As far as I know there is already over R15 billion in this fund. R5 billion per year being collected. What if R1 billion per annum was awarded to Universities for Renewable Energy research? The government spent R1 billion per annum on the Nuclear Energy Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) for 10 years!

The government wants to slap a R120 per ton tax on CO2 emissions. At 1 kg of CO2 per kwh in South Africa, that equates to .12 cents per kwh!! And this will increase by 10% per annum. It makes the total levy / tax on electricity 15.5c per kwh. What do people think of this additional tax on Electricity, especially in light of no private home owner renewable energy electricity support?

What if private people could make investments before VAT and before tax, in a similar way to companies? What would this cost the fiscus? How many jobs would be created?

What if climate and carbon taxes were used to support RE investments, especially those that supply energy at peak time?

What if everyone was given the opportunity for Time of Use (TOU) tariffs without the service fee? Assuming that people pay to install their own meters.

What if "reverse feed" was legal?

What if Net Metering was introduced with sell back at 30% less than buy at off peak times and sell back is 100% more than buy at peak times, thus incentivising people to create systems that allow them to sell at peak times? At the moment the household tariff for someone using 1,200 kwh per month is R1.29 per kwh incl VAT. This makes R1,548 per month. Sell Back during off peak time could be 90.3c per kwh. Sell Back at peak time could be R2.58. Sound like a lot? Far fetched? Eskom currently spends somewhere between R4.00 and R45.00 per kwh at peak time for energy depending on who you speak to. I calculated that the Ankerlig power station costs R12 per kwh to run using 25,000 litres of diesel per minute to make 1,338 MW.

What if Retail Wheeling was introduced? e.g. people with large roof tops selling into the grid to buyers who want to buy green energy? Solar Farms is another model that would benefit from Retail Wheeling.

What if the National Grid was given to an organisation outside government to run?

Installers have been tasked by government to ensure that 35% is local content, but since November 2008 when the government "introduced" Feed in Tariffs, a number of local and international companies have invested heavily in South Africa and wanted to build factories.  However, with the constant changes the government has made and with it now declaring Feed in Tariffs illegal (although they are widely used elsewhere), many of these companies have left.  Even local Solar Water Heater companies are closing as government changed its 1 million solar water heater program to 100,000 solar water heaters.  I don't believe that investors will come back into the market until legislation allows reverse feed and until councils and Eskom allow Net Metering in some form or other.  Investors will also want to see projects being commissioned before building factories.  What does the conference think about this?

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