Following its announcement on Saturday that no load shedding is expected to be necessary this winter, Eskom has provided further insight into its power generation mix and output capacity.
“Eskom supplies approximately 96 percent of South Africa’s electricity and more than 45 percent of Africa,” the parastatal said in a statement on Sunday.
Eskom used various technologies to generate electricity, the combination of which was called the “plant mix”. The utility was constantly investigating other forms of energy and renewable energy sources that could be used to expand its current plant mix, it said.
Coal-fired base load power stations made up the largest portion of Eskom’s plant mix. These stations used coal as their energy source and operated 24 hours a day to meet the demand for electricity. Eskom’s generation division had 14 coal-fired power stations with an installed capacity of 38,548 MW.
Africa’s first nuclear power station, Koeberg, was also a base load station with capacity of 1940 MW of power.
The generation mix also included two conventional hydroelectric power stations and two hydro pumped storage schemes. These stations were used when there was a sudden increase, or peak, in the demand for electricity which could not immediately be met by the base load stations. They had a combined capacity of 2000 MW.
The last of the present mix were four quick reaction gas turbine power stations with an installed capacity of 2426 MW. These stations were used only at peak periods and during extreme emergencies due to their very high operating costs. The two smaller, “older generation” open cycle gas turbine stations (OCGTs) used kerosene to power their engines whereas the two new gas power stations ran on diesel.
“Sere Wind Farm is Eskom’s flagship 100 MW renewable project, demonstrating our commitment to sustainable development,” it said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
