The latest in a series of articles on energy markets in Southern Africa explores the liberalization of the Southern African Power Pool and emergence of South Africa’s wholesale electricity market.
Electricity is shifting into a traded, time-sensitive and increasingly differentiated commodity across Southern Africa through the commercialization of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and forthcoming launch of the South African Wholesale Electricity Market (SAWEM).
Dominic Goncalves, Advisory Partner for Energy Strategy at Cresco Project Finance and Founder & Director of Naviara Energy, told pv magazine that Southern Africa is moving away from treating electricity as a vertically-integrated utility product as open-access reforms, corporate procurement, battery storage and regional trading create more routes between generators and consumers.
“Market demand is moving from requiring the cheapest form of renewable energy towards dispatchable, firmed renewable energy that is delivered when it is required the most, not simply when it is most cheaply produced,” he explained.
Opening the regional market
