South Africa’s power grid is entering a high-risk phase as the rapid rise of rooftop solar and renewable energy is starting to outpace the system’s original design capacity.

The transition to cleaner energy is no longer just an opportunity but also represents a technical balancing act that could determine grid stability in the years ahead, highlights Schneider Electric Middle East and Africa power and grid segment VP Taru Madangombe.

South Africa is transitioning rapidly to renewable energy, and while cleaner power is desired, these sources are variable, which introduces complexity into a grid designed for stability from synchronous, fossil-based generation.

At the heart of the issue is intermittency, where solar and wind generation fluctuate by the hour, and where, combined with a surge in unregulated rooftop solar installations, this variability is creating bidirectional power flows that the existing infrastructure was never built to handle, Madangombe elaborates. “This, therefore, introduces risks that could compromise grid integrity,” he adds.

Managing Complexity

Madangombe notes that recent grid instability events in Europe, including large-scale disruptions in Spain and Portugal, offer a cautionary tale, and while the causes are debatable, he highlights the importance of visibility and control as non- negotiable in a high-renewables system.

“As you scale renewable energy, the critical question becomes who has visibility of what is happening on the network? Without advanced monitoring and control systems, you cannot manage the associated risks.”

Madangombe says Europe’s interconnected grid helped to prevent a prolonged crisis – an advantage that Africa has yet to fully realise.

While South Africa is promoting regional power pools, the country does not yet have the strong interconnections needed for resilience. He advocates for a more integrated African grid, as it would enable countries to support one another during instability events.

To manage this new complexity, Madangombe highlights that utilities must invest in digital technologies capable of real-time monitoring and control, adding that advanced distribution management platforms and distributed energy resource management systems have proven their effectiveness globally.

These solutions enable utilities to optimise distributed energy assets; without them, utilities would essentially be “operating blind” in an increasingly dynamic system.

He cautions that technology alone is not enough and that demand-side interventions, which have been long overlooked, must also play a central role.

The country has focused heavily on generation, but Madangombe stresses that the demand side is equally important, and incentivising large users to shift consumption away from peak periods could significantly improve grid flexibility. Such mechanisms, including time-of-use tariffs and automated demand response programmes, require regulatory support and clear economic incentives to succeed, he concludes.