Business Partners Limited said businesses continue to apply for funding to invest in alternative energy as there is no guarantee that load shedding will remain suspended.
This was revealed last week at a business engagement in uMhlanga, hosted by Business Partners, a loan provider primarily for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). Business Partners said it had launched an Energy Fund due to the interest in alternative energy.
Despite 170 days of no load shedding, Business Partners said businesses still have concerns that load shedding could return. Energy experts said Eskom energy capacity had improved, but the high tariff prices could be influencing businesses to look at alternative energy.
Veroshen Naidoo, the investment manager in the East Coast region, said no load shedding for the past five months was good news for business.
“The concern is we don’t know if load shedding will return. Business has not forgotten the last two years and the amount of load shedding they have experienced, where they were impacted two or three times a day and had to invest in inverters and generators.
“A lot of businesses had to have back up funding to survive through this period, but unfortunately start-up businesses couldn’t survive this. We have launched the Energy Fund and we have funded businesses with solar panels, generators so that they can stay active and productive during load shedding.”
Ruse Moleshe, managing director of RUBK, an energy and infrastructure consulting and advisory company, said Eskom was well on its way to putting load shedding behind it.
“Given what transpired in the past, it is not surprising that businesses are still fearful of the possibility and impact of load shedding, but that fear is not supported by the current evidence.
Investing in alternative energy solutions could be a way of managing risks for such businesses,” Moleshe said.
Professor Wikus van Niekerk, Dean of Engineering at Stellenbosch University, believes many businesses will continue installing solar as it will be cheaper than buying from Eskom or municipalities.
“There is also the risk of ageing electrical distribution infrastructure that will impact the reliability of supply, so it is not only load shedding. I think companies and many large consumers will continue installing batteries and solar energy.”
Waldo Krugell, an economics professor at North-West University, said further investment in alternative electricity went beyond ensuring electricity supply. “Part of the concerns are rising Eskom tariffs, and solar panels are cheap now. The other part is the worry about the pressure to be more green and the impact of carbon border adjustment mechanisms. Some firms are thinking ahead to the just energy transition.”
Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Commerce CEO Melanie Veness said the take-up of solar was partly fuelled by concern that we have not seen the back of load shedding yet.
“Another major contributing factor is the rapidly escalating cost of electricity and concerns around future affordability,” Veness said.
The Mercury