State-owned electricity utility Eskom is leading the large-scale commercial rollout of battery energy storage system (BESS) technology in South Africa, aiming to demonstrate its feasibility and benefits, with Phase 1 currently under way and Phase 2 in development, says Eskom generation group executive Bheki Nxumalo. Currently, the Eskom BESS rollout programme is the largest to be implemented in South Africa and entails 1 440 MWh distributed BESS with 60 MW solar PV.