MTN SA rolls out a four-phase green energy programme in pursuit of its net zero ambitions
MTN may be Africa’s most famous yellow brand but MTN South Africa’s head office is quickly “going green” as plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040 gain further momentum.
To secure and procure reliable energy, MTN South Africa this week launched a request for proposal (RFP) which will see the MTN Headquarters becoming a completely “green” office. Phase 1 involves the procurement of providers for alternative energy rooftops and solar carparks and this forms part of the company’s broader Project Zero initiative, which explores all forms of renewable energy on a large and smaller scale.
MTN SA CEO Charles Molapisi says that apart from helping manage the current rolling power cut challenges, MTN’s energy strategy addresses a broad array of immediate climate and energy challenges. The strategy includes mitigation initiatives to minimise and or eliminate the impacts of climate change, reduce energy costs, and dependence on fossil fuels.
“Climate action is imperative to secure the future socioeconomic development of Africa. In South Africa, we acknowledge the importance of balancing the reduction of our impact on the environment with the need to connect more people to high-speed broadband,” says Molapisi. “We are adopting appropriate mitigation measures that are enabling MTN and its people to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel generated power. Our focus is to reduce any unnecessary use of energy, create more energy efficiencies, increase the use of renewable energy and to generate more value from conventional sources, such as heat,” says Molapisi.
MTN is adopting a phased approach towards the development solar renewable energy-based projects pursuant to its Net Zero Energy Strategy commitments to achieve its net zero ambitions. The MTN Net Zero Energy Project will be implemented in four phases: • Phase 1 Facility – 14th Avenue Campus roof top and solar carports in car parks • Phase 2 Facility – Ground mounted Solar Facility on vacant land adjacent to 14th Avenue Campus • Phase 3 – Rooftop and Ground Mounted Solar at various other MTN Facilities • Phase 4 – Off-site wheeling from REIPPs
Implementing the renewable energy project will result in improved reliability and cost effectiveness of electricity supply. Phase one could see an anticipated 7,143 Mwh generated (one Mwh is equal to 1,000 kilowatts of electricity generated per hour and to put this into perspective, the average developed economy house uses about 893 kwh a month). These projections are all subject to final bid approvals and evaluations. The preferred bidder notification for Phase one is expected in December this year.
“The capacity of the facility will be determined by bidders after having considered the availability of roof top and carpark areas and its suitability for the purposes of extracting maximum capacity. However, it is clear based on current expectations that as we move through the phases, this should be more than enough to move to complete energy self-sufficiency of our building, surrounds and assist greatly in our move to embedding alternative energy solutions into everything we do,” says Molapisi.
This RFP addresses the following Phase one initiatives and focusses on the establishes of a renewable energy Facility at MTN’s Headquarters: • Roof top – several buildings have been identified for roof top installations • Solar carparks – several carparks have been identified to replace current shade cloth with solar carpark structures and PV panels. • Energy storage using battery storage
Meanwhile, investing in large IPP programmes will reduce MTN South Africa’s carbon emissions, contributing to the Group-wide 2040 net zero strategy.
MTN SA is utilising its IPP license for self-generation by using Combined Cooling Heat and Power (CCHP) technology (Tri Generation) at three of its switching centres to generate 4.75 MW of power to support building electrical base load, and to be only partially dependent on the Eskom grid. MTN also has 30 off-grid renewable energy facilities which generates an additional 57kW in remote areas where there are no space constraints.
“We see this as an opportunity to explore all forms of renewable energy, large and smaller scale systems, as well as investing in large IPP feasibility programmes, which when implemented will reduce our carbon emissions as part of our Project Zero programme to achieve net zero by 2040,” says Molapisi. The plan is also aimed at ensuring network stability, where battery solutions and backup generation remain pivotal.
“The challenge of providing renewable energy at all of our base station facilities is that this is heavily dependent on space to accommodate large solar arrays to suit our power requirements to support the latest network technology (5G). Our current backup power methodology is mainly battery backup, with key sites having permanent onsite generators and MTN deploying mobile backup generators where and when required,” concludes Molapisi.
A perfect storm is forcing green independence from the coal-dominant grid
By Lance Dickerson, MD, Revov
For all our best intentions and well-meaning words, it is often easier to continue with the status quo. However, a perfect storm in South Africa has catapulted us into a new energy future. While it’s painful now, we will be grateful in a decade or two from now.
South Africa has relied on an ever-weakening coal-based national power supply with Koeberg being the sole nuclear reactor. As far back as 1998 – some would argue earlier – the writing has been on the wall. In the years leading up to the 2010 World Cup, the new-builds such as Medupi were already too little, too late. This is even before the cost overruns, delays and expensive design flaws. This as other countries were investing billions into renewable energy builds.
We’ve had some great announcements locally. There is the 100MW private embedded exemption and if one drives along various routes such as the N2 in the Eastern Cape you will see growing wind farms, but where is the mass rollout of renewable power generation? Most South Africans can answer this question.
Over the same period, the world has become conscious of the environment and there’s been a push towards reducing carbon emissions. The Congress of the Parties (COP) 27 will proceed later this year in Africa, after the last edition of COP was criticised for underrepresenting the so-called Global South. All eyes will be on countries such as ours.
While one may well be cynical about the level of carbon emission concern globally, the truth is that many countries have already made bold commitments. Norway, France, UK, US: they’ve all made bold plans to reduce and outlaw internal combustion engines by various dates – all of which fall, by the grace of God, comfortably within our lifetime. We will see it.
China is light years ahead of a country like South Africa. Shenzhen, the home of electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD, has 16 000 electric buses and 22 000 electric taxis. Carmakers around the world are investing billions of dollars into research and development, from 100% EV makers to traditional brands plotting their plans to shift their businesses to the certain electric future.
None of this is new. We’ve known this in South Africa for years. We’ve known the world is moving to renewable energy and e-mobility. Ask the average South African for their thoughts on the mass rollout of electric charging stations and their answer will likely be: “Great, but where will the electricity come from?”
Everyone knows Eskom barely has its head above water. We feel it with incessant bouts of load shedding. This is part one of the perfect storm. Out of necessity the government will have no choice but to speed up the transition to renewable power generation, complete with private players that can deliver. Businesses and households have little choice but to find ways to protect themselves from this unreliability.
The second part of the perfect storm is the cost of fuel. The end of May will likely see a record fuel price increase, made worse by the temporary fuel levy grace period coming to an end. Running a generator during prolonged periods of load shedding is very quickly becoming something only those with very deep pockets can contemplate. One shudders to think that Eskom runs diesel generators to keep our lights on. The costs are eye-watering.
The third part of the perfect storm is the repo rate increase cycle, putting pressure on already squeezed retailers and consumers. Costs eventually have to be passed on. Imagine running a small or medium business that’s dependent on electricity to generate revenue while the power is removed in bouts of stage 2, 3, 4 (and possibly more) load shedding. Imagine the squeeze when read against increasing rent, increasing input costs and ever-more weary customers. How long is this sustainable?
The fourth part of the perfect storm is the willingness of private financial institutions and lenders to proudly advertise credit and funding lines for renewable installations. Businesses and private households will likely take up this offer precisely because it gives them the opportunity to develop freedom from dependence on a broken grid.
Within five years we will see huge investments in installations of all sizes: homes, small businesses and larger manufacturing and mining operations that require high-voltage solutions. Lithium iron phosphate batteries mean that the ability to store energy has come on in leaps and bounds.
That’s the perfect storm – where South Africans are forced to make the transition. However, the good news is that by using 2nd LiFe batteries, where the cells are repurposed from EV batteries, consumers and businesses can make the transition with the peace of mind that they are contributing to an important step in the circular economy: they are using batteries that don’t add further strain to the environment such as their first life counterparts.
That’s where we want to be: in a world where conscious decisions are made to look after the planet. If it takes us being forced, through a perfect storm of Eskom failures and economic headwinds, to get there so be it. Better late than never.
By Old Mutual Wealth Investment Strategists Izak Odendaal and Dave Mohr
These strange times have become even more unusual. Despite the enormous efforts to reduce the demand for carbon-emitting fossil fuels, their prices have shot up in recent weeks.
The upcoming COP26 Glasgow Climate Summit could ironically take place against the backdrop of coal and natural gas prices at record levels and oil at multi-year highs even though the share of renewables in the global energy mix has thankfully risen steadily.
Chart 1: Futures prices for coal, gas and oil, US$
Source: Refinitiv Datastream
A perfect storm
It is a perfect storm of events that got us here. On a positive note, demand for energy has increased from the lockdown-induced lows. For instance, IATA estimates a 26% growth in airline passenger numbers between 2020 and 2021, though they are still more than 40% below 2019 levels. However, this improvement in demand has not been met by rising supply. On the contrary, several factors have constrained supply.
One is simply the weather. Northern Europe relies heavily on electricity from wind, but it has been less windy than usual. Droughts in Brazil, China and the US mean hydro-electrical production has also been lower than normal. This has led to increased demand for natural gas and coal. However, natural gas inventory levels have been lower than usual at storage depots across Europe. This has created an opportunity for Russia, Europe’s main gas provider, to flex its geopolitical muscles and go slow on deliveries, although it has indicated a willingness to stabilise the market recently. With winter looming, natural gas prices in Europe have gone stratospheric, pulling up prices in other parts of the world.
In China, flooding has disrupted domestic coal production. China is already the biggest consumer of coal in the world, but demand has increased recently, and with it, its price. Geopolitics play a role here too. China blocked Australian coal imports, about a tenth of its total last year, after Australia questioned the origins of the coronavirus. Imports from Mongolia have also been disrupted by Covid.
Chinese electricity prices are heavily regulated, and utilities cannot freely pass on the cost of higher coal prices to customers. Many have opted to cut back on production, rather than sell at a loss. Beijing has now announced that selling prices will be allowed to rise somewhat. All this has happened at a time when local governments were already reducing electricity production from coal to curb air pollution and carbon emissions. The net result is something South Africans know well: widespread load-shedding.
Finally, in terms of oil, OPEC (along with Russia) has largely maintained the production cuts it put in place last year to prop up the oil price. In other words, there is no fundamental shortage of oil. Supply is being deliberately held back. OPEC can increase supply if it worries that high prices will choke off demand, but for now, its members seem comfortable with the revenues flowing in. Importantly, the price increase has not yet led to the associated increases in American shale oil production as has been the case over the past decade. Shale producers have largely abandoned the old production-at-all-costs mindset in favour of maintaining profitability and shareholder returns.
Chart 2: US oil prices and production
Source: Refinitiv Datastream
An associated factor is that these companies and their peers face increased difficulty in accessing the funding needed to increase short-term (in the case of shale) and long-term production (in the case of the oil majors). Banks and asset managers across the world are phasing out exposure to fossil fuels and some have already cut all ties. This has contributed to steep declines in capital expenditure by fossil fuel producers.
In other words, the big move among global investors towards embracing environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles might have the unintended consequences of higher fossil fuel prices until such time as renewable sources reach critical mass.
Chart 3: Capital expenditure by listed oil, gas and coal companies
Source: Refinitiv Datastream
The good news is that elevated fossil fuel prices do create a strong incentive to increase investment in alternatives. This is where ESG can play a big role to make sure the alternatives are green, not brown. Economists have long argued that the best way to tackle climate change is to put a tax on carbon emissions. This is because the price we pay for a tank of petrol, for instance, covers the cost of production and distribution but not the cost of the associated air pollution. Since the cost of this externality is not included, petrol is too cheap. This leads to excessive demand. A carbon tax raises the price to its “correct” level and lower demand. The recent price increases could therefore achieve a similar effect.
A tax on your houses
Increased energy prices act as a tax for most consumers. Most of us have no choice but to fill up our car. If you live in the snowy Northern Hemisphere, you have little choice but to heat your home with gas.
In other words, this will be a drag on global consumer spending, the question is just for how long will prices remain elevated. It is somewhat compensated for by the excess savings that households in the rich world have built up, but it also appears that most of the excess savings are concentrated in the hands of more affluent households. Meanwhile, it is lower-income households that are most exposed to increases in energy prices and associated rises in food prices. Nonetheless, it is worth pointing out that at around $80/barrel, the oil price is nowhere near the $150/barrel record set in 2008 on the eve of the global financial crisis, or the $100+ levels that prevailed between 2011 and 2014, especially adjusted for inflation or growth in incomes.
The other complication is that these price increases come at a time when inflation rates are already elevated. The global production and delivery of goods are already severely constrained by Covid-related disruptions, shortages of inputs and labour, and logistical bottlenecks. But now production in China, the world’s factory, has to contend with electricity blackouts. This is likely to worsen the supply chain problems already besetting the world economy.
People often confuse higher fuel prices with inflation. Fuel prices are very visible since most motorists have to fill up at least once a month. But inflation refers to sustained price increases in a broad range of consumer goods and services. Energy is a component in consumer price indices and therefore higher energy prices do have a direct short-term impact. But the big question is whether firms can raise their selling prices to compensate for higher input costs. In this way, higher energy costs ripple through the economy. If workers then demand higher wages to compensate, we have the beginnings of a wage-price spiral. This clearly requires pricing power on the part of firms and bargaining power on the part of workers that have been absent for many years. However, in the current Covid-distorted global economy, there have been signs of both.
Winners and losers
There are clear winners from this energy crunch. Net exporters of coal, gas and oil are clearly smiling, particularly countries such as Nigeria that have really struggled until recently.
In contrast, many countries are energy importers and face not only higher inflation rates, but also potentially balance of payments problems as they need to cough up more of their scarce dollars for each barrel of oil. Compounding matters, this comes at a time when the US Federal Reserve is planning to scale back its monetary stimulus, which has put upward pressure on the dollar. Some developing countries, therefore, face a triple whammy of higher energy costs, a weaker currency, and domestic central bank interest rate hikes aimed at stabilising exchange rates and inflation.
South Africa has one leg in this camp as an importer of petroleum products. The rand has been on the back foot in recent weeks, and this means a big petrol price increase is on the cards for next month.
However, we are also the world’s fifth-largest coal exporter (behind Australia, Indonesia, Russia and the US) and the rising export revenues limit downward pressure on the rand. Coal exports would be even higher if not for the capacity constraints on the Transnet rail corridor from the Highveld to the coal terminal at Richards Bay.
It also helps that inflation has been relatively stable in South Africa, with price increases excluding food and energy costs running at only around 3%. The SA Reserve Bank’s latest forecasts suggest that inflation should stay close to the 4.5% midpoint of the target range over the next two years. However, the risks are clearly to the upside. A gradual interest rate hiking cycle is therefore likely to commence in the next few months. How gradual will depend on where energy prices settle and how the rand responds. The Reserve Bank will also keep a close eye on what other central banks are doing, particularly the US Fed.
Oils well that ends well?
In summary, it is a delicate moment for the global economy, and could end up being a long, cold winter for people in the Northern Hemisphere. The big risks are a slowdown in consumer spending, further disruptions to production and persistent inflation that forces central banks to tighten monetary policy sooner than they’d like. None of this is good for markets.
However, it is worth repeating that the underlying cause is the strong recovery in demand as the world gradually puts the pandemic behind it. This is good. Moreover, energy prices are notoriously volatile. In April last year, a key oil futures contract briefly traded at a negative price. Traders were willing to pay to get rid of the oil rather than take delivery. The most recent price moves in gas and coal also have all the hallmarks of panic-driven trading, and therefore are unlikely to be sustained over time. Investors in diversified portfolios should similarly avoid making panicky moves in response to the recent dramatic headlines. The current situation is the result of a nasty confluence of events, and some of the contributing factors on the supply side could ease.
Finally, in the current context, it might be worth remembering that 13 years or so ago, “Peak Oil” was a dominant investment narrative. It was believed that the global supply of oil would peak and this justified prices surging to $150/barrel and beyond. The opposite turned out to be the case. Today, we’ve probably already passed the point of peak oil demand due to the rise of electric vehicles. Demand for coal could prove stickier, while natural gas could increase in importance as a “bridging fuel” while the world transitions to renewable sources. However, short-term price movements are clearly going to remain unpredictable.
This is relevant when thinking about investments more broadly. Dominant narratives can lead you astray. Just because you read about a “megatrend” or “structural change”, whether it is ESG, clean energy, blockchain, biotechnology, or demographic shifts, doesn’t mean that there is easy money to be made. It could be priced on already, or simply overhyped. You could be way too soon or too late already. Maintaining appropriate diversification across different asset classes and within each asset class remains the best way of investing, even if it sounds boring.
Benefits of using a grid-tied system during the pandemic
Electricity continues to be a huge problem in our country during the pandemic, where further load shedding is being experienced due to cable theft. This not only impacts the residential sector but also both commercial and industrial power users. A solution to alleviate the lack of security of supply is by installing solar panels and batteries at businesses or households, especially at essential services such as hospitals where power is needed the most. Given the impact of the pandemic, hospitals need constant power to ensure patient’s care.
Solar panels coupled with a battery storage solution provides a good alternative for the medical fraternity. Such an installation results in reduced consumption of grid power, yielding immediate savings through a lower monthly electricity bill.
The Head of Engineering for IMPower Pty Ltd, Gabriel Kroes, explained that the solutions have been designed to partially displace municipal power with more affordable and cleaner energy.
“These systems are therefore designed to save you money, however, they do not typically have the ability to function as standalone systems during a blackout/loadshedding as it does not include battery/storage technologies. Battery storage or generator integration would need to be added to enable the technology to function during a blackout,” said Kroes.
Batteries are useful for in the following scenarios:
1.Curtailment Reduction/Deferral: Storing excess generation so that you can use it when you need it (if you have excess generation).
2.Arbitrage: Displacing “peak” energy consumption and therefore, peak energy costs. Basically swopping out solar energy or even cheap “off-peak” grid energy for “peak” grid energy, so that you can benefit from the cheaper tariff. This is called energy arbitrage. A simple example is to charge the battery at let’s say R1 per kWh during off-peak times and then to discharge this energy during peak times when energy charges would have been R2.50 per kWh. In this case, you are saving R1.5 per kWh for the energy that flows through the battery.
3. Backup: providing electricity when the grid is off. This is very similar to mini or micro-grid solutions where the solar PV and battery system operates as a “stand-alone” energy supplier to the off-taker. Usually, to save costs, these systems are only designed to provide power to essential loads such as emergency lighting, security, servers.
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