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Energy management program provider Comverge has been selected by Eskom, Africa's largest electricity provider, to develop and co-manage the first open market for demand response (DR) resources on the continent.

 

Eskom, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, transmits and distributes about 95% of the country's electricity and about 45% of the electricity used in Africa overall. Peak demand in South Africa is about 37,000 megawatts and Comverge will help the utility balance supply and demand for a varied customer base that includes mining, industrial, commercial and agricultural customers and redistributors.

 

For the roughly $27 million pilot project, Comverge will implement its IntelliSOURCE 2.0 platform for Eskom to register, dispatch and operate the new competitive DR market in South Africa for an initial 500 megawatts of demand response resources. The agreement with Eskom also calls for Comverge to provide at least 100 megawatts of DR as one of the new curtailment service providers in the coming market.

 

"We are excited to launch the Eskom Demand Response Aggregtaion Pilot Program to leverage the power of demand response to help ensure greater grid reliability across South Africa," said Andrew Etzinger, senior general manager for Eskom's Demand-Side Management. "With Comverge, we have one of the world's most experienced demand response providers as a partner in these efforts and together, we will deliver a comprehensive and very successful program to benefit local companies and help us optimize energy usage."

 

R. Blake Young, Comverge president and CEO, commented "Working closely with Eskom, Comverge will establish the first sophisticated, broadly available capacity market in South Africa and help launch a network of curtailment service providers. The project requires proven, comprehensive demand response technology and know-how and we believe Comverge's IntelliSOURCE enterprise software platform combined with our decades of experience in understanding energy markets and will serve Eskom well in meeting its progressive energy management objectives."

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