Renewable energy mix for Eswatini towards meeting electricity demand

Abstract: Eswatini is a country that is currently highly dependent on South Africa for the supply of electricity. Eswatini imports on average 80% of electricity from South Africa annually. Additionally, Eswatini Electricity Company only utilizes hydropower stations to provide for the electricity demand of the country. The implication of this is that Eswatini is currently not tapping into other renewable energy sources that maybe available to the country to exploit. The single-modelled approach in utilizing only one renewable energy resource in generating electricity, leaves the country vulnerable to challenges that include, lack of capacity to generate power locally during dry seasons or drought, which leaves the country energy security exposed to issues beyond its borders. This research work presents renewable energy sources available to the country of Eswatini. In this study, potential renewable energy sources available to the country were investigated, particularly their potential, availability and time of availability. It presents results depicting alternative energy sources available to the country of Eswatini to be exploited for power generation, outside of hydropower that is currently being utilized. Relationship between the renewable energy sources was determined so as to ascertain what resource to use and what time of the year. Utilizing SolarGIS and mathematical principles, a methodology of modelling a system that can be used to know how much output to expect from each energy resource based on history and forecasting was developed...M.Ing. (Electrical and Electronics Engineering Science