Demand Side Management potentials for mitigating energy poverty in South Africa

South Africa is severally posited to be Africa's most industrialized nation with an economy heavily reliant on energy. With depleted electricity reserve margin which led to massive load shedding and rationing of electricity in 2008, Eskom has stepped up the construction of additional power plants to cover for growing supply deficits. Emerging trends however favour Demand Side Management (DSM) initiatives as alternatives to building additional supply capacity due to environmental and economic constraints. This research evaluates the electricity per capita for 2007, 2011 and 2016 on provincial basis assuming 100% and 36.8% residential sector consumption of generated electricity to show declining electricity per capita values. A scenario simulation (for 100%, 50% and 30% household participation) of cloth washers and cloth dryers optimal dispatch is then modelled to show the enormous DSM potentials in terms of electricity cost reduction and supply flexibility. A modified genetic algorithm (MGA) is used in the dispatch of participating loads on the Medupi power plant which has been modelled to operate with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. DSM potentials of 6938.34 MW, 3469.18 MW and 2081.51 MW are computed for 100%, 50% and 30% household participation for cloth washers and cloth dryers.