Grid storage uptake in South Africa lacks ‘direction or momentum’

A new report published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) highlights that grid storage has yet to gain “direction or momentum” in South Africa, despite a growing recognition of the role that both utility scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) and other storage technologies can play in providing electricity services besides that of complementing renewables. Titled ‘Watts in Store’, the report distinguishes between grid or front-of-the-meter storage and consumer storage, with behind-the-meter energy storage having expanded significantly as firms and households have sought to protect themselves from intensifying loadshedding. Industry estimates quoted in the report indicate that, by 2022, yearly residential storage deployments alone had jumped to about 2 GWh.