This was one of the plants unmothballed in 2003, if I recall, when Eskom first realised they are going to run out of capacity unless they do something (because government wasn’t investing). So they got almost another 20 years out of it. Not bad.
Just how just will this be? Just pay the money I guess, and another new Patronage scheme… Wash, rinse repeat, use the Medupi recipe…
Groetnis
Guys… There’s really no point in repeating the same opinions in every thread.
You’re drowning out discussion. No-one else will reply because they don’t want to get into a fight.
I created this thread to post interesting news, not to rehash the same debates all the time. I still participate in the threads doing that, so I haven’t checked out, nor am I in denial. I just don’t want to have the same conversation in every thread, every day.
Please.
Edit: I don’t mean to shut you up, stifle criticism, whatever. If you find anything NEW or newsworthy, please post it. More corruption uncovered? Post it. Someone going to court / jail? Post it. But please don’t shut down the topic with the same negativity every time.
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And there “they” go again … but hold on a moment.
If the World Bank and international markets still want to keep on loaning SA money for Eskom, Moody upgrading Eskom’s level, then they must know something we don’t.
And if they don’t, well, then they are really silly … or is there a whole new game being played?
I simply don’t see anyone investing with open eyes in SA today, without a game plan.
Well, the World Bank isn’t stupid, so I’m sure there will be checks and balances required and enforced.
I fully expect tranches for the funds. But no-one is going to give (yes, some is given) that much money without some control over expenditure. Even if you ignore corruption, Eskom could theoretically just divert the funds to other projects, so there will be ringfencing specified.
At the very least new corrupted procurement will need to be committed, which is more difficult than keeping an old thing going in a dark corner. I hope.
Ok, so they are taking a 1000MW coal power station and converting:
Komati into a renewable generation site powered with 150MW of solar, 70MW of wind and 150MW of storage batteries.
That does not seem equivalent in any way.
Komati’s last unit only generated 121MW, so it actually is pretty close 
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The generating side should be 4-5X higher than the storage side, rain and cloud and no wind. Wonder the storage capacity?
Edit: By rights they should install 700MW
Groetnis
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Sure, but they still won’t have sun 24h/day…
Yeah, I saw the 150MW and wondered the same.
Is 150MWh reasonable in this context? 
They say the whole thing is to learn what is required, maybe this’ll be the first thing they learn…
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I think the issue is probably area (or finances)? The batteries don’t necessarily have to be charged by the on-site PV, they could be charged whenever excess capacity is available.
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Valid point, they can, but that is just stupid. We have blackouts because reasons… They should thusly not.
Groetnis
That was fast…
Today, in the World, building and running a Solar PV combined with Wind and battery storage plant, is cheaper than just the operating cost of coal fired plant. Compared to Medupi for example, it will be way way cheaper.
Groetnis
Yes, but even though we have blackouts our pumped storage schemes are running… and doing their job. So it may not be that stupid…
At the higher levels of load shedding storage do take a hit. In Cape Town we feel it, the moment we go above stage 4, all of a sudden we join the rest of the country… because Steenbras just cannot keep up. Below stage 4… we’re always one or two stages lower than the rest of the country, somehow finding enough capacity to recharge. I assume the same will be true for battery storage anywhere.
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I was actually wondering what a “fully renewable grid” looks like…
Surely we still need some spinny bits for frequency control and inertia? Even if that’s not a coal plant, it can’t all be electronic?
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Electronics provide no frequency inertia, so as you go into higher %'s of renewables things like this are needed.
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On a number of occations, we had blackouts to pum water for the pumped storage. No really, the blackous were to reserve energy to pump that water….
Groetnis
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I assume that’s part of the “We’re at Level 3 to conserve emergency reserves” they put out every once in a while? Like that’s what’s needed to black-start the system?
It does make sense to dip into your emergency reserves hoping to bridge a gap, but then if the gap doesn’t close, you have to shore it back up again. Otherwise we’d sit at Stage N+2 while having full pumped storage dams?
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