Author Archive for: Engineering News

Power utility Eskom will reduce load-shedding to Stage 1 from 21:00 on Friday night until 05:00 on Monday morning. This was thanks in part to a return to service of a generating unit at Kusile, and a recovery of emergency power supplies.

South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) has reported that the country’s (and Africa’s) only operating nuclear power plant (NPP), at Koeberg near Cape Town, had for the past decade complied consistently with regulations concerning occupational exposure and public doses of radiation. The NNR was created in 1999 and exists to protect people, property and the environment from nuclear damage. It does so through the establishment of regulatory practices and safety standards optimised for South Africa, and through oversight and assurance activities. Koeberg is owned and operated by the country’s national State-owned electricity utility, Eskom. It is composed of two reactors, known simply as Units 1 and 2. Unit 1 entered operation in 1984 and Unit 2 in 1985. Each unit has a net generating capacity of 930 MWe. The NPP’s current licensing term will expire on July 21, 2024.

Eskom reported a material improvement in the performance of its power stations on Friday morning and indicated that it would review, by 17:00, whether it was necessary for it to sustained load-shedding over the weekend. CEO Andre de Ruyter reported that total unplanned losses had reduced to 11 258 MW, from above 14 000 MW when six-days of Stage 2 load-shedding was declared on Wednesday February 2.

Biomass fuel manufacturer and distributor Calore Sustainability Energy (CSE) Biomass, a division of clean energy provider Earth & Wire, started the new year with installations at two agriculture companies in Worcester, in the Western Cape. The first installation includes two 350 kW hot-air generators, installed last month, and the second installation a 2 200 kW wood chip-fuelled boiler system, to be installed in April.

The chairperson of the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) says the industry is well placed to take advantage of both the 100 MW reform and recent moves to release 36 000 ha of Eskom land in the grid-rich Mpumalanga province to accelerate renewables investments and facilitate a just energy transition from coal. Mercia Grimbeek tells Engineering News that resource measurement campaigns have overturned earlier assessments suggestive of deficient wind resources in the region to show that “a sufficient resource exists in the province for the deployment of wind energy facilities”.