Energy expert Ted Blom believes distributed generation will slice electricity costs by up to 90% for the average household.
Blom is a speaker and advisory board member of the 18th African Utility Week that is taking place from 15-17 May in Cape Town, South Africa.
“South Africa and the world is at the precipice of revolutionary developments in energy generation and distribution, and the next five to 10 years will render such dramatic changes that today’s energy supply chain will not be recognisable, especially with the advent of distributed generation, which in many instances will kill off centralised ‘bulk’ generation and distribution,” he says.
“I believe this move will slice electricity costs by up to 90% for the average household, and be a boom industry for participants in the energy revolution, with concomitant radical improvements in standards of living.”
Last year, the independent energy expert also testified before the South African Parliament’s inquiry into Eskom’s governance. “The Parliamentary Energy subcommittee investigation is a refreshing attempt to decipher what has gone wrong at Eskom since it was ‘commercialised’ in 2001,” Blom adds. “However, any results will only highlight that prosecution and clean-ups are long overdue, as the committee is powerless to take punitive action against wrongdoers.”
Blom conducted forensic reviews on the Medupi, Ingula and Kusile power station contracts. “But that work is far from complete and dramatically short of resources,” he says.
“Another milestone is the completion of the legal preparatory work to have the first Tegeta coal supply agreement terminated, but again the action has been suspended for unknown reasons.”
Not only have the other two Tegeta coal supply agreements not been terminated, he points out that Tegeta has managed to get its prices increased.
With regards to the pending decision on the nuclear deal, Ted Blom believes this will be pushed through.
The 18th annual African Utility Week will gather over 7 000 decision makers from more than 80 countries to discuss the challenges, solutions and successes in the power, energy and water sectors on the continent.