A dark Africa lays ahead.....load shedding

[Plentipotential]

I   recently visited friends in Noordhoek, to see the new house they just completed. They went completely off-grid. It sounded like a way forward for those who can afford it. 

 

If I could afford it I would go and live somewhere else quite honestly.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

If I could afford it I would go and live somewhere else quite honestly.

 

You and me both but being open-minded and realizing every other place has it's own issues too, just different one's.......

[DJR]

If I could afford it I would go and live somewhere else quite honestly.

Well, now that is where it gets interesting, what with peeps wanting to escape the Cape, because the owner lived and worked in England, Scotland, Australia, Angola, China, Libya, Indonesia, South Africa, India and the USA. They decided to make Cape Town their home. They say that our standard of living is absolutely fantastic for next to no money. The combination of great weather, outdoors living, beaches, surfing, hiking, cycling, adventure, first world banking, dining, theatre, movies, wine etc is very attractive. The diversity of cultures, Afrikaans, English, Black, Coloured, Malay, Indian, Portugese and the range of European swallows, is exciting. They even compliment the efficiency of things like municipal services. Very few complaints from people who really tried most of the world, and have been on and off in SA for well over a decade......so they know our problems.

[Shebeen]

i reckon mods can merge a few threads on this one.

 

9point plan, includes

 

 

• Government will immediately start a nuclear build programme to add 2 500 MW of power “because it is a no-regret option in the long term”.
• The Koeberg nuclear power plant will be extended by another 20 years. The Koeberg plant was supposed to reach its end of life by 2024.
• Government will immediately start to buy power from private suppliers.

The plan also refers to the changing role of Eskom, as its generation, transmission and distribution functions will be separated.  

 

all good in principle, except for #1 without more details.

 

dunno if this means they have taken the PBMR plan out of the vault - nuclear just ain't gonna happen anytime soon. lead times on site certification and the inevitable legal challenges will delay it. My only thought is, either they are clueless or it's a smokescreen to get on with other stuff.

[Capricorn]

i reckon mods can merge a few threads on this one.

 

9point plan, includes

 

 

• Government will immediately start a nuclear build programme to add 2 500 MW of power “because it is a no-regret option in the long term”.
• The Koeberg nuclear power plant will be extended by another 20 years. The Koeberg plant was supposed to reach its end of life by 2024.
• Government will immediately start to buy power from private suppliers.

The plan also refers to the changing role of Eskom, as its generation, transmission and distribution functions will be separated.  

 

all good in principle, except for #1 without more details.

 

dunno if this means they have taken the (1) PBMR plan out of the vault - nuclear just ain't gonna happen anytime soon. (2) lead times on site certification and the (3) inevitable legal challenges will delay it. My only thought is, either they are clueless or it's a smokescreen to get on with other stuff.

 

1) nope

2) done

3) not a problem given 2's location.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Capricorn

[Shebeen]

1) nope

2) done

3) not a problem given 2's location.

it depends...they have 5 earmarked sites, if they are looking at 2500MW, it can't all be at koeberg.

so if anything, i think they might start an additional plant at koeberg- probably makes the most sense due to overlapping functions at an existing powerplant.

 

Trying to build a greenfield will be a minefield.

 

 

not sure if this was news, but I can handle this, even if there's no way to get that HEP in our borders.

Additional capacity in the energy mix set out by the IRP2019 shows coal would account for an extra 1 500 MW of energy, while an extra 2 500 MW will come from hydropower, an extra 6 000 MW from solar PV, an extra 14 400 MW from wind, an extra 2 088 MW from storage and an extra 3 000 MW from gas.

[Shebeen]

and pumped storage...

cost us R36bn for a 1320MW system when eskom built it

 

so should also be IPP if we want it to be done properly

 

https://www.fin24.com/Economy/Eskom/eskom-under-fire-as-ingula-costs-said-to-balloon-to-r36bn-20160822

[MrJacques]

https://portelizabethdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2013/07/swartkops-power-station.html

 

"By the mid-1980s Eskom had more than enough power available to adequately service the whole country.  Due to South Africa's political isolation the economic growth slowed and consequently Swartkops was deemed to be unnecessary and taken out of regular operation in 1986.

 

By 1995 Swartkops was called back to service with the operation helping the city to limit its demand on Eskom.  The following year however, saw Eskom offered the Municipality a tariff structure that made the power station, by now 42 years old, uneconomical.  Today the buildings stands empty after being sold to a private company by the municipality for less than R4-million and who, "within weeks" sold off the turbines for a profit of more than R30-million, according to well-placed sources within the municipality. "

Edited October 18, 2019 by Jacquers

[scotty]

 

 

By 1995 Swartkops was called back to service with the operation helping the city to limit its demand on Eskom.  The following year however, saw Eskom offered the Municipality a tariff structure that made the power station, by now 42 years old, uneconomical.  Today the buildings stands empty after being sold to a private company by the municipality for less than R4-million and who, "within weeks" sold off the turbines for a profit of more than R30-million, according to well-placed sources within the municipality. "

 

Follow the money trail here. 

Edited October 18, 2019 by scotty

[scotty]

Not a comment you would expect from someone who is tasked to steer the ship.

 

At a media briefing yesterday to explain why load shedding has returned and what Eskom plans to do about it, Mabuza responded to a question on whether he is the right person for his job by explaining that he didn’t apply for it and was there due to the decisions of President Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

“Am I the right person? I would have applied for the job if I had the qualifications and I wanted it. I didn’t apply for this. South Africans and the president and the minister must make the call,” he said.

https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/load-shedding/2193152/eff-calls-for-admittedly-clueless-mabuza-to-go/

[Eddy Gordo]

Sounds like he does not want the job or be held accountable.

[Robbie Stewart]

I know a guy who's old man worked for Eskom at Koeberg. He now works in Dubai at a nuclear station there. Apparently all the experience has already left Koeberg, and they are being replaced by 22/23 y.o. inexperience. Also with the French technology employed by Koeberg, it's an uphill struggle for the newbies. Dark days ahead it seems.

[Vetplant]

Our loadshedding was scheduled from 15h00 to 17h30... By 18h30 it was still off and we figured there was something bigger wrong... Then the images started trickling through... Substation near Rooiwal had caught fire and it had cascading trips in the area. Technicians luckily isolated the problem from the grid and our power came back on at 20h00.

 

These types of issues are just going to increase over time, isn't it? 

[Capricorn]

I know a guy who's old man worked for Eskom at Koeberg. He now works in Dubai at a nuclear station there. Apparently all the experience has already left Koeberg, and they are being replaced by 22/23 y.o. inexperience. Also with the French technology employed by Koeberg, it's an uphill struggle for the newbies. Dark days ahead it seems.

errrm, yes and no.

 

some experience has left. not all of it. The guys in abu dhabi (not dubai btw) were either interested in better income and then left, or were sidelined by internal politics, and then got interested in better income, and left as well.

 

[redacted]

 

There are still really good, very technically competent ppl there. But they've been sidelined.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Capricorn

[Bonus]

https://portelizabethdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2013/07/swartkops-power-station.html

 

"By the mid-1980s Eskom had more than enough power available to adequately service the whole country.  Due to South Africa's political isolation the economic growth slowed and consequently Swartkops was deemed to be unnecessary and taken out of regular operation in 1986.

 

By 1995 Swartkops was called back to service with the operation helping the city to limit its demand on Eskom.  The following year however, saw Eskom offered the Municipality a tariff structure that made the power station, by now 42 years old, uneconomical.  Today the buildings stands empty after being sold to a private company by the municipality for less than R4-million and who, "within weeks" sold off the turbines for a profit of more than R30-million, according to well-placed sources within the municipality. "

You'd think that the name of the company and who owned it would be easy enough to find out...

[MrJacques]

Our loadshedding was scheduled from 15h00 to 17h30... By 18h30 it was still off and we figured there was something bigger wrong... Then the images started trickling through... Substation near Rooiwal had caught fire and it had cascading trips in the area. Technicians luckily isolated the problem from the grid and our power came back on at 20h00.

 

These types of issues are just going to increase over time, isn't it? 

 

Some of the substations (like the area where I live) aren't switched on and off anymore due to them being too old and possibly suffering damage like this. Yeah, I think we will see more broken substations.