South African Workshop Presentations
Two Visibility Workshops have been held on the 28 – 30 January 2010 and 2-4 March 2011 and a Partner & Training Workshop on the 15 – 22 March 2013.
2.1 Abstracts of South African Workshop (January 2010)
2.1.12 Distributed provision of energy services and the potential use of decision support systems to identify projects
Presenter:
Steve Szewczuk
CSIR
At present the bulk of the world’s supply of energy, for example electricity and liquid fuels, is provided in large centralised power stations and facilities that are large distances away from the load centres and markets. This approach, one of ‘economy of size’, generates power in large, efficient power stations and facilities and is delivered to load centres and markets via an extensive logistical network of wires and transport routes. An alternative approach, that of distributed generation (DG), can be described as ‘economy of mass production’; power is generated by many more smaller plant located near to load centres. This approach makes relatively little contribution to the world’s energy production, but is gathering momentum.
This presentation will discuss various CSIR activities related to distributed power production, the development of decision support tools that could assist with the identification of distributed power production projects. An overview will also be provided of projects undertaken and technologies that are being investigated to that could provide distributed power. Once such technology or rather an integrated set of technologies is entitled Integrated Research Infrastructure Platform (IRIP) and is geared towards the provision of energy, water and the treatment and recycling of waste for a community.