Project
Bojanala Platinum Valley SEZ Energy Plan
The Bojanala Platinum Valley SEZ (Special Economic Zone) targets PGM beneficiation, mining equipment and machinery, renewable energy products and components and logistics, including the upstream value chain as well as several downstream opportunities. The primary focus of the SEZ is on PGM beneficiation industries and key opportunities include catalysts (automotive catalytic converters), electrical and electronics components, biomedical and pharmaceutical products (cancer treatment and micro implants), high-performance alloys (labware, optical equipment and turbine blades), fuel cells and jewellery. The SEZ’s main hub is to be accommodated on a 100-ha site, near the town of Mogwase.
Approach
Since the overall Energy Plan consists of the major components of a Network (Infrastructure) Plan (D1) and Energy Management (Load Curtailment) Plan (D2) a project framework was developed to break down the various components for these two deliverables as summarised in the figure below.
Electrical Energy/Load Forecast
A geographic based load projection approach was followed to estimate the SEZ load requirements to determine the required network capacity that will need to be provided to ensure the successful development of the SEZ.
A predicted load profile is generated for each of the demarcated geographical areas according to the year/timeframe of when the load is expected to be required. The individual load profiles are then summed together to obtain the expected aggregate load profile for a larger area. This larger area is typically linked to a load centre. The stand to load centre link is illustrated below.
The aggregation is achieved by summating all the load for each hour in all the relevant profiles to obtain the total expected load for that hour for the area considered.
The Geographical Load Forecast (Projection) approach was implemented in Microsoft Excel® for the SEZ as a working tool that can be updated periodically with the latest development in electrical load information and as actual and planned tenant information changes.
As an initial scenario a conservative ‘Low initial uptake and growth’ case is modelled for the SEZ and this assumption is reflected in the estimated load forecast shown in the figure below. This assumption is based on historical patterns observed in other SEZs in South Africa.
The outcome of this initial scenario translates into the following proposed SEZ plan for electrical supply connections:
- 0 to 5 years – 10MVA
- 6 to 10 years – 10 to 40MVA
- 11 to 20 years – > 20MVA
MiPOWER
MiPower is a team of passionate South Africans dedicated to tackling the nation's energy challenges head-on.
