Scepticism about gas-to-power plants in South Africa

Luis

Luis

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Bad news about Eskom's gas plan

EE Business Intelligence manager and energy expert Chris Yelland remains sceptical about the economic feasibility of gas-to-power plants in South Africa.

A recent analysis also found that an alternative peaking power technology is already substantially cheaper than gas-based generation, with costs continuing to drop.
 
We had another article recently saying our only gas supply is drying up and will be gone by 2028, so this sounds like eskom doesn't have two brain cells to rub together.
 
Bad Ballie said:
We had another article recently saying our only gas supply is drying up and will be gone by 2028, so this sounds like eskom doesn't have two brain cells to rub together.
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They don't use gas right now anyway
 
South Africa was heading in the opposite direction to certain developed countries
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There was no need for a whole article to elaborate on this comment.
 
I would say there is no need for the 3000MW of gas anyway as electricity demand from Eskom continues to fall. They can just muddle on with their installed capacity and be fine. At the rates charged they, Eskom, can use OEM's to run plants and all sit back and enjoy a bit of corruption on the side, eliminating the bungling.

More seriously, I guess making your own gas (digestion, landfill etc) can work and be sustainable but, in SA, power outputs are tiny, 2, 5 maybe 10MW per installation seems typical (eThekwini, CoCT, BMW etc).
 
wingnut771 said:
What does 3000MW of landfill gas generation look like?
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Very, very roughly you might get 1MW from 1m m3 of waste subject to age, composition, extraction efficiency, contaminants, even moisture content. This is just a snapshot, it will decline by at least 10% annually. 3 000MW = 3 000 x 1 000 000 a big number. SA's biggest landfill may have 30m m3 in place but at least 20 or 30 years old. A single landfill getting 1m m3 annually (around 3 000t/day; 1t = 1m3) is a big landfill (only Dbn, Jhb (2No.) & CoCT I would say). Google and AI may know better or fill in the detail.
 
Oldfut said:
Very, very roughly you might get 1MW from 1m m3 of waste subject to age, composition, extraction efficiency, contaminants, even moisture content. This is just a snapshot, it will decline by at least 10% annually. 3 000MW = 3 000 x 1 000 000 a big number. SA's biggest landfill may have 30m m3 in place but at least 20 or 30 years old. A single landfill getting 1m m3 annually (around 3 000t/day; 1t = 1m3) is a big landfill (only Dbn, Jhb (2No.) & CoCT I would say). Google and AI may know better or fill in the detail.
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If dbn is only extracting 5MW, how do they extract 3000MW?
 
Oldfut said:
I would say there is no need for the 3000MW of gas anyway as electricity demand from Eskom continues to fall. They can just muddle on with their installed capacity and be fine. At the rates charged they, Eskom, can use OEM's to run plants and all sit back and enjoy a bit of corruption on the side, eliminating the bungling.

More seriously, I guess making your own gas (digestion, landfill etc) can work and be sustainable but, in SA, power outputs are tiny, 2, 5 maybe 10MW per installation seems typical (eThekwini, CoCT, BMW etc).
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They're supposed to be decommissioning a massive chunk of their coal capacity in the next few years. They'll need SOMETHING to fill that gap if they actually stick to the plan (and I'm pretty sure they have to because it's part of the conditions for all that juicy Energy Transition money they get from overseas)

Having said that I'm sceptical of Eskom being able to build an outhouse, let alone a gas power plant.
 
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