Renewable energy company Enel Green Power South Africa (EGP SA) has appointed manual Battisti country manager.
Battisti, who succeeded William Pricejoined the Enel Group in 2008 and held various positions within the company, before moving to South Africa in 2019.
As the new country manager of EGP SA, he will be responsible for the three businesses of the value chain: development, engineering and construction and operation and maintenance.
EGP SA initially focused on business development and expansion in South Africa, including through renewable energy projects built under bidding windows (BW) 3 and 4 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP).
This year, the company is focusing its attention on the actual production of electricity from the existing 1,200 MW in operation of its current wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, as well as on the preparation of its submission for BW6 of the REIPPPP.
At the same time, it negotiates electricity purchase contracts with large private consumers to diversify its customer base.
EGP SA explains that one of the challenges facing the renewable energy sector is the limited capacity of the country’s network. As in all countries, the network was designed to bring electricity from centralized production centers to large consumption centers which, in the case of South Africa, are traditionally concentrated in the same area.
On the contrary, the best solar and wind resources are concentrated in areas where population and consumption are limited.
The company says that to meet this challenge, new solutions must be created. To this end, EGP SA is developing power stations in non-traditional areas to get closer to consumers or rather to connect to the network with residual reception capacity.
The challenge is therefore to increase electricity production to meet consumption needs and to supply electricity at the lowest cost for the country.
The priority for future expansion will be to broaden EGP SA’s reach with more Eskom-led projects awarded through the REIPPPP, as well as grow its portfolio of private clients.
Eventually, this may lead to bringing other business units of the group to South Africa, for example, distribution and transmission, demand side management, trading and even electric mobility.
“Supporting the country towards the stabilization of the energy market and a just transition, as well as the expansion of EGP SA’s customer base, are fully part of Battisti’s responsibilities.
“With his solid experience in the renewable energy sector, combined with his knowledge of African markets, he is well placed to meet the business objectives of the company in his new role as Country Director”, concludes EGP SA.
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