French energy conglomerate TotalEnergies, together with its partners Hydra Storage Holding and Reatile Renewables, have inaugurated the 216 MW solar and 500 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) hybrid power project, Hydra. The facility, located in South Africa’s Northern Cape province, became the largest hybrid renewable energy power plant on the African continent.
The facility is designed to supply 75 MW of dispatchable renewable electricity to the national grid continuously between 5:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., under a 20-year power purchase agreement signed with Eskom. This represents more than 400 GWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the consumption of approximately 200,000 South African households.
TotalEnergies highlighted that the milestone marks a significant contribution to the South Africa’s Just Energy Transition program that aims to decarbonise the economy utilising its vast renewable energy resources.
“We are delighted, together with our partners Reatile Renewables and Hydra Storage Holding, to bring the Hydra project into operation. It enables us to supply dispatchable renewable power to the South African grid, thereby strengthening the country’s energy security while decarbonizing its electricity generation,” said Magali Pailhé, Managing Director of TotalEnergies Southern Africa.
“This project reinforces our renewable production capacity in South Africa, the continent’s largest power market in terms of electricity consumption,” added Pailhé.
The Hydra solar-storage hybrid project was developed by a consortium composed of TotalEnergies (35%), Hydra Storage Holding (35%) and Reatile Renewables (30%). It is part of South Africa’s Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) launched by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
RMIPPPP was launched in 2020 as an emergency procurement initiative to rapidly address the country’s persistent electricity supply shortfall and reduce the severity of load shedding. Unlike previous renewable energy procurement rounds, the programme required projects to provide dispatchable power during peak demand periods through a technology-neutral approach, paving the way for hybrid solutions combining renewable energy generation with battery energy storage.
Since the award of preferred bidders in 2021, several RMIPPPP projects have reached commercial operation, demonstrating the viability of dispatchable renewable energy at utility scale. These include the 75 MW Oya Energy Hybrid Facility in the Northern Cape, developed by ENGIE and its partners, and three Kenhardt solar-plus-storage facilities located in the Northern Cape by Scatec. Operating since late 2023, they provide 150 MW of dispatchable power to the national grid between 05:00 and 21:30 daily.
