Dear Colleague

Following the first webinar in 2020 hosted by Nedbank, EE Business Intelligence (EEBI) and the Joburg Centre of Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University, please find below and attached:

Report back on:

First webinar in 2020, hosted by Nedbank, EE Business Intelligence (EEBI) and the Joburg Centre of Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University, on:

“The prospects and grid impacts of self-generation by customers in South Africa”

Prepared by Chris Yelland, managing director, EE Business Intelligence

Nedbank, in association with EE Business Intelligence and the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University hosted a webinar on the prospects and grid impacts of self-generation by customers in South Africa.

DATE: Friday 21 August 2020                       TIME: 12h00 to 14h30                    COST: No cost, free-of-charge

Co-hosted by: Nedbank, EE Business Intelligence and JCSE, Wits University
Moderated by: Thabang Chiloane, Executive Head: Group Strategic Relations and Public Affair; and Chris Yelland, Managing Director, EE Business Intelligence

Purpose of this report

The purpose of this report is to capture, for the record, in a single document, all the salient information, presentations, audio/video and content in respect of the first webinar in 2020 hosted by Nedbank, EE Business Intelligence (EEBI) and the Joburg Centre of Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University, entitled: “The prospects and grid impacts of self-generation by customers in South Africa”.

Background

Load shedding and COVID-19 are having a devastating impact on investment, the economy, growth and job creation in SA. However, load shedding and COVID-19 can also be a catalyst for new policy, regulatory, standardisation and training initiatives as customers of electricity, including municipal electricity distributors, begin to take responsibility for their own energy futures and become part of the solution through self-generation.

This was the first of a series of six webinars this financial year (2020) intended to initiate a constructive dialogue on critical energy and ICT solutions needed to unlock the human and economic potential of South Africa. The further webinars in the series will be announced shortly.

The presenters

Nhlanhla Gumede

Nhlanhla Gumede is the full-time board member of the energy regulator, NERSA, primarily responsible for electricity. He is former chairperson of the board of PetroSA, and a former CEO of South African Farmers Development Association. Between 2003 and 2008, he worked as deputy director general of hydrocarbons and energy and a chief director hydrocarbons at the then Department of Mineral Resources. Before joining the Department, he had been working with SAD-ELEC, an energy consulting company, where he was an executive director and senior consultant. Nhlanhla has advised a number of large international oil companies on regulatory frameworks and various governments on energy policy, strategy and regulatory frameworks. Nhlanhla holds BSc (Eng) degree and a Master of Business Administration. He has served as a technical advisor to the Minister of Energy as well as an associate director at Deloitte.

 

Leila Mahomed-Weideman

Leila is currently the director for sustainable energy markets in the energy and climate change directorate at the metropolitan municipality of the City of Cape Town. This new department, set up in mid-2017, aims to facilitate energy security, energy diversification and innovation in meeting energy needs and reducing energy poverty. In addition, the Department has been tasked with managing the low carbon development path in Cape Town towards its carbon neutral 2050 commitments. Leila was director of development and operations at SA Mainstream Renewable Power Developments from 2009 to 2014, a renewable energy projects development company that successfully built almost 600 MW in South Africa. Prior to this she was managing director at Sustainable Energy Africa, a leading energy NGO in South Africa focusing on the energy, poverty and sustainability nexus, and an independent consultant. Leila has Bachelor’s degrees in environmental and geographical science from UCT, and in developmental studies from the University of the Western Cape, as well as a Master’s degree in energy from UCT.

 

Roger Baxter

Roger Baxter is the CEO of the Minerals Council of South Africa, and is fully committed to the mining industry and a person who pulls no punches when it comes to addressing pertinent matters. Since joining the Minerals Council (then the Chamber of Mines) in 1992, Roger has been at the helm of transformation of the association. More importantly, he also champions the cause for both mining companies and their employees, including taking the challenge to government over its policies. Roger has 28 years of high-level advocacy and strategy experience in the business and mining sectors. He was involved in the first mineral policy discussions with the ANC in 1992 and has participated (and often led) discussions on all aspects of mining, economic, investment, transformation and tax policy with government. Roger has an honours degree in commerce and a post-graduate economics degree in international economics, business economics and advanced corporate strategy, from the University of Natal. He has been CEO of the Minerals Council South Africa CEO since 2015.

 

Segomoco Scheppers

Segomoco is the Eskom’s group executive and CEO for Transmission. He previously served as the acting chief procurement officer, as well as the head of Eskom’s Southern African energy operating unit, which focuses on Eskom international electricity trading and business development primarily in the SADC region. His career in Eskom includes transmission operations and maintenance, capital project management and long-term transmission system planning. He previously served on the boards of Eskom Uganda, Trans Africa Projects, and the International Hydropower Association. He currently serves as shareholder representative on MOTRACO (the Mozambique Transmission Company, a joint venture between the following national utilities: Eskom, SEC of Swaziland, and EdM of Mozambique). Segomoco is a registered professional engineer. His qualifications include a BSc in electrical engineering and an MBA, both from Wits University. He is a member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers as well as the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa.

 

Attendance

 

EEBI prepared a marketing brochure, and EEBI and Nedbank prepared an email invitation based on this, which were used in a number of bulk email and social media campaigns on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn by EEBI, Nedbank and various industry associations to attract registration on the Nedbank Microsoft Teams platform used for the webinar. Prior to the webinar at 12h00 in Friday 21 August 2020, there were over 900 online registrations for the webinar. Attendance on the day peaked at about 600 attendees.

 

Subject focus of the presenters

 

The presenters at the webinar will each give high-level presentations on various important aspects of self-generation, as follows:

 

·        Nhalanhla Gumede, full-time Regulator Board Member at NERSA responsible for electricity regulation, covered the policy and regulatory issues in respect of self-generation.

·        Leila Mahomed-Weideman, Director: Sustainable Energy Markets at the City of Cape Town, covered the ambitions for self-generation by City of Cape Town and other municipalities, and self-generation by customers within municipal networks.

·        Roger Baxter, CEO of the Minerals Council of South Africa, covered ambitions for self-generation by mines and industry to become part of the solution for new generation capacity in South Africa.

·        Segomoco Scheppers, CEO of the Transmission Division at Eskom, covered the impacts of self-generation on Eskom and the electricity grid.

 

Programme for the webinar

 

The webinar was structured with the following programme:

 

12h00 to 12h10: Introduction

12h10 to 12h30: Presentation by Nhlanhla Gumede, NERSA

12h30 to 12h50: Presentation by Leila Mahomed-Weideman, City of Cape Town

12h50 to 13h10: Presentation by Roger Baxter, Minerals Council of South Africa

13h10 to 13h30: Presentation by Segomoco Scheppers, Eskom

13h30 to 13h40: Comfort break

13h40 to 14h25: Q & A and discussion

14h20 to 14h30: Thanks and closure

 

Audio/video recording of the webinar

 

The webinar was hosted on the Nedbank MS Teams Webinar platform on Friday 21 August 2020. The audio/video recording of the webinar can be viewed here. Click on the file name Recording (1).mp4, and for ease of reference the following is a breakdown of the various sections of the webinar which are accessible at the following times in the video (hh:mm:ss):

 

00:03:40 Introduction

00:09:36 Presentation by Nhlanhla Gumede

00:30:13 Presentation by Leila Mohamed-Weideman

00:54:18 Presentation by Roger Baxter

01:12:20 Presentation by Segomoco Scheppers

01:54:50 Question and answer session

02:29:15 Closure

 

Presentations at the webinar

 

PowerPoint slide presentations were received and presented by Nhlanhla Gumede, Leila Mohamed-Weideman and Segomoco Scheppers, and verbal and text presentation by Roger Baxter, which are available here:

 

Slide deck by Nhlanhla Gumede

Slide deck by Leila Mahomed-Weideman

Text presentation by Roger Baxter

Slide deck by Segomoco Scheppers

 

Kind regards

 

Chris Yelland

Managing director

EE Business Intelligence (Pty) Ltd

41A Waterfall Avenue, Craighall, 2196, Johannesburg

Tel: 082 317-4175; Email: chris.yelland@ee.co.za; Website: www.eebi.co.za