Teraco gets cracking on solar after deal with Eskom
As part of an effort to guarantee power to its facilities, Teraco, Africa’s largest data centre provider, has secured its first grid capacity allocation from Eskom and will start building a 120MW solar energy facility in the Free State.
By design, data centres are meant to have backup power to ensure that service to clients is never interrupted. Teraco has been investing in such systems for years, but the increase in power cuts has made it double down on such efforts.
Teraco has over the years seen an increase in companies wanting access to its centres to store and process large amounts of corporate data. It provides connections for global tech firms such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The company now holds about 40% of data centre capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa.
WHEELING
Teraco said the deal with Eskom enabled it to connect its planned 120MW solar facility to the national electrical grid. The power generated will be wheeled across Eskom and municipal power networks to Teraco’s facilities across SA.
According to Eskom, wheeling “is the delivery of energy from a generator to an end-user located in another area through the use of existing distribution or transmission networks”.
It may also be across multiple different distribution networks, such as through Eskom to a municipality.
A simple example of wheeling is a solar farm based in the Northern Cape selling its energy to a company in Gauteng. The electricity is delivered using Eskom’s transmission network and the municipal distribution network. The idea has been championed by companies such as Vodacom, which has faced challenges in powering its cellphone towers during blackouts.
“This allocation is a significant step towards meeting our renewable energy ambitions and those of our clients. It is also only the first phase of our longer-term renewable energy commitment. We have been on a long journey over the last few years to obtain these approvals, and our aim now is to execute quickly on the opportunity,” Teraco CEO Jan Hnizdo said.
Teraco has partnered with Juwi Renewable Energies SA and Subsolar to develop the solar plant, with Juwi appointed to design and manage the procurement, construction and commissioning.
When fully operational, the plant is expected to produce more than 338,000 megawatt hours annually.
WHEN FULLY OPERATIONAL, THE PLANT IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE MORE THAN 338,000 MEGAWATT HOURS ANNUALLY
Over the past two years Teraco has deployed about 6MW of rooftop solar integrated into its facilities. This amount is to be increased to 10MW as new facilities become operational.
“In SA, we have various energy challenges, and this presents an incredible opportunity to meet our near-term renewable energy goals while adding additional power capacity to a generation-constrained grid,” Hnizdo said.
“This will be a unique approach in Africa since Teraco will not only own its data centre facilities but also a significant renewable energy source with which to power them, creating a sustainable energy path to support growth.”
Teraco, which is majority owned by New York-listed Digital Realty, has been on an aggressive expansion drive in recent years. Increasing demand from content providers, such as social media, search or streaming companies, has been a growth area for the company.