The Demand Side Management (DSM) Project, a collaboration between USAID and Berkeley Lab in South Africa (SA), addressed the load shedding crisis in SA by emphasizing energy efficiency strategies

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The Demand Side Management (DSM) Project, a collaboration between USAID and Berkeley Lab in South Africa (SA), addressed the load shedding crisis in SA by emphasizing energy efficiency strategies in the Energy Efficiency Business Intelligence webinar. Project experts, Theo Covary, Dr. Yu-Chieh (Jessie) Yen, and Prof. Ken Nixon, focused on DSM, highlighting significant reductions in power demand and energy consumption in the water heating sector which contributes 20% to the winter peak energy demand in the country. With 701 unique attendees, including stakeholders from municipalities, private sector, and regulatory/government sectors, including the Office of the President, these expert seminar series increase comprehension of how DSM programs swiftly and sustainably save energy.

So what? Properly planned DSM strategies in the water heating sector can aid South Africa’s national and local governments in managing the ongoing crisis.

Watch the webinar here.

LBNL collaborates in SURE webinar exploring energy efficiency opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa

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USAID’S Scaling Up Renewable Energy (SURE) program convened a webinar on October 27th, 2022 with participation by TetraTech, CLASP and LBNL to identify potential energy efficiency interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), region that is experiencing a rapid population growth and increased energy demand in the sectors of transportation, cooling, buildings and agriculture.

During its participation, LBNL highlighted the building blocks of energy efficiency (standards and retrofits, market priming and financing and policy planning) and provided an example of a successful technical assistance project in South Africa, where significant energy savings were achieved by supporting a standards and labeling program targeting key appliances.

The webinar was attended by more than a hundred representatives from consulting and development organizations in SSA and provided useful inputs to SURE for the development and implementation of impactful energy efficiency interventions in the region.

Watch: Exploring Energy Efficiency Opportunities in Sub Saharan Africa

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Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are working to provide accessible, affordable, and reliable energy while navigating a transition to net-zero emissions. At the same time, these countries are experiencing rapid population growth which has major implications for energy demand for transportation, agriculture, buildings, and cooling.

USAID’s Scaling Up Renewable Energy (SURE) program held a webinar that explores opportunities in energy efficiency interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa and successful approaches for energy efficiency planning and implementation.

Energy efficiency technologies, policies, and financing can reduce electricity costs for businesses and consumers over the long term while creating local jobs and reducing emissions. Energy efficiency also reduces public expenditure on generation capacity and is a cost-effective way to boost competitiveness in industrial and commercial sectors that can spur economic growth.

Watch the webinar here.

 

USAID and LBNL Help Advance Demand-Side Management in South Africa

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USAID and LBNL are supporting the South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) in its effort to design a new Demand-Side Management (DSM) program. The LBNL team is providing inputs on DMRE’s approach to integrate energy efficiency as part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s emergency response plan to address the nation’s energy crisis, characterized by the prevalence of rolling black outs impacting millions of people and hampering economic development.  The LBNL team was invited to present their initial findings at an internal workshop held on August 23, 2022  and it will continue to work closely with the unit responsible for energy efficiency at DMRE to provide continuous inputs. As a result of this technical assistance, the LBNL team is helping Eskom (the government-owned utility) and DMRE to shape a new DSM program that will have an initial goal of saving 600MW in the short term. Improved DSM on the South African power system can in turn alleviate the pressures on the grid that are causing rolling blackouts and in the process avoid costs associated with building new generators and transmission lines, save customers money, and lower pollution from electric generators.  

Berkeley Lab Briefs USAID/Power Africa Delegation on Clean Energy Development Opportunities

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Berkeley Lab hosted a USAID/Power Africa delegation led by Coordinator Mark Carrato and Special Advisor Dan Kammen to discuss clean energy innovations across the buildings, transportation, and industrial sectors and tour the FLEXLAB® and the Biomass Stoves Laboratory.

Michael McNeil,  Energy and Environmental Policy Research Scientist at Berkeley Lab,  provided a briefing on recent work from EE4D in South Africa and Uganda, followed by a briefing from Geothermal Systems Program Lead Pat Dobson on geothermal energy collaboration in Kenya and the Lab’s incubation program for innovative clean tech companies. Discussions also included collaboration on the Net Zero World initiative. The briefing allowed USAID/Power Africa to identify potential areas of collaboration with Berkeley Lab to advance low carbon objectives and explore funding mechanisms.

USAID/Power Africa was launched in 2013 with the mission of increasing the number of people with access to power in the continent. The stated goal of the program is to add at least 30,000 megawatts (MW) of cleaner electricity generation capacity and 60 million new home and business connections by 2030.

Energy Efficiency Standards Promote Climate and Energy Security in South Africa

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Energy Efficiency Standards and Labeling programs (EESL) have been implemented in more than 80 countries, covering more than 50 different types of energy-using appliances. They remove inefficient technologies from the market; deter more advanced economies from dumping older, less-efficient technologies on USAID partner countries; and empower consumers to make informed purchasing choices. This ClimateLinks blog details the collaboration provided by USAID and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) through the EE4D program to support the implementation of the EESL program in South Africa and the achievement of climate and energy security goals.

Read the blog here.

 

Berkeley Lab helps the South Africa Department of Energy save the equivalent of a 500 MW coal plant

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The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) of South Africa issued a revision of mandatory energy performance standards (MEPS) for seven appliances on February 17, 2020. This revision will result in savings of 3 terawatt-hours of electricity by 2040, representing the avoided capacity of a 500-megawatt thermal power plant and avoided emissions of 1.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), equal to the annual emissions of Malta. This achievement contributes to the South African government’s international engagement in fighting against climate change through its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).

Berkeley Lab has been working very closely with DMRE to provide technical assistance and to develop conjointly a tool to inform DMRE’s revision decisions. This collaboration led to the development of a new study that assesses the impact of South Africa’s Standards and Labeling program. The final report discusses the significant benefits within the next 20 years in terms of energy savings, mitigation of CO2 emissions, water savings, air quality improvements and consumer’s electricity bill savings. It also shows that the government’s cost of saving 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) is 100 times less than the cost of supplying 1 kWh of electricity

The impacts assessment study is part of the Energy Efficiency for Development program (EE4D), a partnership between USAID and Berkeley Lab advance energy efficiency strategies in support of sustainability and economic development in partner countries.

The full report is available here.

 

South Africa Energy Efficiency Modelling Workshop

South Africa Energy Efficiency Modeling Workshop – July 2019

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South Africa Energy Efficiency Modelling Workshop The Department of Energy of South Africa and the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) hosted a workshop on July 31st on Energy Efficiency Modelling in the Residential Sector. The workshop gave the opportunity for DOE to present the modeling methodology, assumptions and results of the new tool developed in collaboration with LBNL and USAID to demonstrate the multiple benefits of the revision of the Standard and Labeling program. More than 30 people from government agencies, the private sector, universities and NGO attended the workshop and provided meaningful feedback to be integrated in a final report. The final report will describe the modeling tool and will provide a high level summary of the costs to the government and benefits for the country of revising the S&L program.