A GROUNDBREAKING renewable energy milestone has been achieved just outside the small Northern Cape town of Noupoort, where South Africa’s first Main Transmission Substation (MTS) built by a private company has officially gone live.

Completed and energised on April 5, the Koruson 400/132 kV MTS is the first transmission substation in the country to be fully developed, financed, engineered, constructed, and commissioned by an Independent Power Producer (IPP). It’s also the first of its kind in more than seven years to be integrated into the national grid - and it happened right here in the Northern Cape.

Designed to connect a staggering 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to the national grid, the substation was built as part of a massive green energy initiative spearheaded by international renewable energy giant EDF Renewables, in partnership with H1 Holdings, Gibb-Crede, and a local community trust.

“This is the first greenfield transmission substation in more than seven years to be connected to the grid, and it is the first greenfield transmission substation that is a full self-build,” said Tshepo Tshivhasa, head of grid engineering at EDF Renewables. “It is also the first time that the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) has approved a self-build scope of works of this magnitude.”

Located in the heart of a renewable energy development zone, the Koruson MTS forms the backbone of the adjacent Koruson 1 project cluster, which is being developed under Round 5 of the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

The MTS, which is integrated into an existing 400 kV overhead line, will provide the infrastructure for the renewable energy farms to complete their respective connections to the grid and start exporting energy.

Phase 1 of the energisation will see the Koruson 1 project connect three wind farms, totalling 420 megawatts (MW), to the grid. Phase 2, through the neighbouring Envusa Energy Koruson 2 project, will add two more wind farms and a solar plant, bringing another 520 MW online. Each facility will be linked to the MTS via its own 132kV overhead line and Eskom switching station, also built privately under the same self-build model.

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EDF Renewables powers ‘first-of-its-kind’ energy project in Northern Cape