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The need for municipalities to use AI to track installations was highlighted at the AMEU Convention
In South Africa, where it is estimated that more than half of rooftop solar PV systems are not registered with a municipality or Eskom, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a tool to accurately pinpoint these residences.
In a presentation at this week’s Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities’ (AMEU) 70th Convention, Claudio Angelo Duarte: Geospatial Industry Lead: Utilities at Esri South Africa, demonstrated how the company used AI to pinpoint unregistered solar panels in an (unnamed) area.
“We used AI to scan a certain metro. We told the AI, ‘this is what a solar panel looks like’ and we fed it hundreds of images [of solar panels],” said Duarte.
The data collection is usually done through remote sensing via an aircraft or taken from satellite imagery.
The reach of AI
In the case study the AI identified 3,684 registered land parcels with 331 solar panels of which 16 small scale embedded generation (SSEG) applications could be verified.
Duarte said AI and digitalisation in general will enable adaptive revenue generation models for municipalities and utilities.
The need for municipalities to use AI and machine learning was one of the central themes of the AMEU Convention.
In his presentation to delegates, Ihab Mokhles of Cuculus, explored the critical role of AI and data analytics in enhancing grid resilience.
He said that by leveraging these technologies, utilities can enhance predictive maintenance, monitor grid performance in real time and improve load forecasting.
Harnessing AI and data analytics is essential for ensuring a reliable, efficient and sustainable energy grid, he said.
“{Also] the use of AI and machine learning can detect fraud faster… so you can address the situation faster,” said Makhles.
Solar installation growth
Earlier this year, Sustainable Energy Africa estimated that more than half of rooftop solar PV installations in South Africa are not registered and are illegal.
The SA Local Government Association’s (Salga) Status of Embedded Generation (EG) in South African Municipalities December 2023 report, said that EG installations on South African distribution networks are accelerating (for both municipal distributors and Eskom distribution).
This is driven by “increasing electricity tariffs and system reliability concerns (loadshedding), combined with steadily decreasing solar PV technology costs.”
Of the 71 municipalities that allow EG connection, 67 municipalities have developed official application processes that allow customers to get authorisations for the installations, the report noted.
The City of Cape Town’s policy for checking on solar installations, for example, includes cross-checking registered systems with aerial photographs “which we use to identify the existence of all PV systems.”
“Unauthorised embedded generation systems must be authorised or decommissioned and a service fee will be charged,” the City said.
According to the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association’s (SAPVIA) Solar PV Installed Capacity Data Dashboard, by the end of the first quarter of 2023 more than 5,659MW of solar PV was installed.
The SAPVIA figures are based on aerial photography for the first quarter of 2023.
Addressing unregistered solar systems
Most of the survey respondents in the Salga report indicated that their database of approved applications did not capture all the EG systems installed in their municipalities, as large numbers of systems remain unregistered.
They noted that larger systems were more likely to register (partly because they are very visible and are cautious to comply with insurance requirements) while smaller, typically residential systems tend, not to.
“Therefore a higher percentage of small systems tend to be illegal, while more large systems are compliant,” the report said.
It also pointed out that in the Eskom distribution areas a similar issue with unregistered systems appears to exist, with only 655MW of EG being authorised by Eskom.
“While there remain uncertainties in the data, the estimated volume of unregistered MW (45% of all EG, or 22% of the total private PV capacity) is a concern.
The Salga report said that although addressing the issue of unregistered systems will require a broad strategy, encouraging official EG customer registrations through the following actions should be amongst the priorities:
Raise awareness and improve communication with customers around the benefits of registering systems (including insurance compliance, export credits) and the challenges associated with non-registration,
Implement user-friendly processes in municipalities and Nersa that allow for efficient registration,
Reduce the costs incurred by customers to have compliant systems (eg expensive sign-off and meters),
Support municipal capacity to process applications swiftly (eg through use of the online application portal), and
Incentivise registration by providing reasonable export credits. |
