As South African municipalities embrace decentralised energy sources to strengthen grid resilience and cut costs, many are discovering that managing small-scale generators is far more complex than the traditional single-supplier model, says electricity consulting company Utility Consulting Solutions (UTCS). The shift to decentralised generation – in the form of rooftop solar, other alternative small-scale embedded generators and battery storage – is transforming how municipalities secure their energy. Yet the range of sources has created “unprecedented management” demands that existing municipal systems were never designed to handle.
