Abstract
In the last decade, South Africa has attracted and attained more investment by means of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REI4P), which is, a structured invitation to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to submit a bid to generate and supply power to the electrical grid. In spite of REI4P’s undeniable triumph, a much discussed drawback has been the related service lifetime cost of equipment that facilitate the renewable energy technologies. The description of the service lifetime loss method (SLLM) gets more complex in the new dawn of decarbonized electricity market. The SLLM must be modified for determining the total ownership cost of transformers facilitating Sustainable Energy Systems (SES’s) in the decentralized energy market. The main focus of this work is to indicatively formulate a fundamental advancement upon the conventional service lifetime losses evaluation formula to contemplate the service lifetime loss evaluation method for transformers exclusively of service to solar power plants in South Africa. The distinct operational features of a solar plant have been embedded in the formulated service lifetime loss evaluation formula by way of the plants’ Generation (GM) and Non-Generation Mode (NGM). Further, a levelized cos of energy supplied per unit of time by the solar plant is employed to determine the energy cost of the no-load and load losses that will be consumed by the studied transformers during their service life. Ultimately, the premier findings of this study indicate that the annual solar potential has an effect on the transformer service lifetime loss factors and the conventional method is not suitable thereof for this application. This is a characteristic that should be precisely considered, as it may influence the tender adjudication process to purchase a transformer based on the total ownership cost offers of various transformer manufacturers.
Keywords