Global demand for transmission lines will affect the affordability of South Africa’s plan for a 440 billion-rand ($25.4 billion) national power-grid upgrade, according to the chair of the state-owned utility.
Eskom expects to install 14 000 kilometres of lines over the next decade to connect more renewable-energy plants at a time when the utility is looking to expand a clean-power unit and cut costs overall.
Similar grid expansions across the globe to add more wind and solar projects could boost expenses, according to Eskom chair Mteto Nyati.
“Almost everybody globally is building transmission lines” and that comes down to “a demand-and-supply equation,” he said Friday in an interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg.
Eskom needs to install an unprecedented amount of lines and transformers, just as it stabilised its power supply following years of chronic blackouts that curbed economic growth.
Grid investment worldwide is
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