Energy storage systems helping Eskom to keep the lights on

[wingnut771]

Both are still better than fossil fuel impacts, both at consumption and extraction side.

100% but then we can't moan about the environmental impact of the alternatives surely?

 

[Sapphiron]

100% but then we can't moan about the environmental impact of the alternatives surely?

I think we can acknowledge them, before we do them, rather than trying downplay them, like is so often done.

 

[wingnut771]

I think we can acknowledge them, before we do them, rather than trying downplay them, like is so often done.

This place is ****ed anyway, no matter what we end up doing. Apparently its instant death for any birds that land in those lithium evaporation dams that look very inviting from the air.

 

[antowan]

Yes, sometimes on the odd day the highest I’ve seen is 1.5GW around 2pm. This week though they were burning diesel at a rate of knots to pump the water back at 2pm.

Can the public see this data? I assume it is live? Willing to share the link?

 

[antowan]

This place is ****ed anyway, no matter what we end up doing. Apparently its instant death for any birds that land in those lithium evaporation dams that look very inviting from the air.

Is there evidence for this?

 

[Lupus]

Yeah, loadshitting loading when you see days and days of red.

Count our lucky stars this cold front is falling over a weekend.

Generally when they load shed to build up reserves

 

[Lupus]

Still no Koeberg so now it's been a week

 

[leon.davibe]

Crappy weather all over SA and suddenly the picture not as rosy

I know correlation isn't causation, but it does seem odd that eskom has to burn diesel like nuts suddenly

Naturally koeberg being off-line has an impact

Suddenly requiring more from coal the house of cards looking wobbly again

 

[PaulMurkin]

So either a late afternoon surprise or a Sunday afternoon surprise, we will have to see.

 

[leon.davibe]

depends if koeberg comes back online it will replace big portion diesel burning
koeberg going ofline and a bit of bad weather has just highlighted that the knife edge balancing act is still there
maybe they were just on the blunt edge the last few months

pumped storage has its limits so once those reserves are exhausted before some units are back online
loadshedding may be back on the cards

 

[Lupus]

Crappy weather all over SA and suddenly the picture not as rosy

I know correlation isn't causation, but it does seem odd that eskom has to burn diesel like nuts suddenly

Naturally koeberg being off-line has an impact

Suddenly requiring more from coal the house of cards looking wobbly again

They are doing quite a bit more maintenance now as well, usually they only ramp up in Oct but for some reason they ramped up to 13% which that plus the koeberg thing basically brings it down quite a bit.

 

[leon.davibe]

I understand that is has an impact and than it can be unpredictable.

It's just that mining for batteries has a much much broader impact.

Gold mining in Peru:
View attachment 1758621

Lithium mine in Ukraine
View attachment 1758623

It's also worth noting that a lot of the mines require that a river be dammed to service their requirements.

yea but some farms in SA has similar photos on social media in SA
unfortunately data can be presented to say what you want to say
how much of this is climate change and how much is mining

12 Before And After Satellite Images Showing How Much Humans Changed The Earth From 1984 To 2020

To really highlight just how much climate change has impacted our planet, Google Earth published a series of short time lapse videos that perfectly illustrate these changes.

www.demilked.com

 

[Lupus]

depends if koeberg comes back online it will replace big portion diesel burning
koeberg going ofline and a bit of bad weather has just highlighted that the knife edge balancing act is still there
maybe they were just on the blunt edge the last few months

pumped storage has its limits so once those reserves are exhausted before some units are back online
loadshedding may be back on the cards

Maintenance has increased from end of August.

 

[leon.davibe]

Sometimes we forget that actual facts can still be used for propaganda

ie propaganda isn't always false data

 

[wingnut771]

Can the public see this data? I assume it is live? Willing to share the link?

Live for Eskom I think but us plebs have to look at 24 hour old data. If you just hover the mouse pointer over the area you can see the data. Eg;, 12pm on the 12th there is -1717MW under water Pumped_Water_SCO_Pumping, you can't "see" it on the graph though, other than from the reduced black coal_gen numbers while they use excess coal to pump water back:

Station build-up for the last 7 days - Eskom Data Portal

This shows how resources were used to build-up the demand over the past 7 days, and it includes both generation and demand side resources that Eskom has contracts with.

www.eskom.co.za

 

[wingnut771]

Is there evidence for this?

No, but I can imagine a flock of flamingos swooping down on those pristine looking ponds.

 

[Unhappy1]

I understand that is has an impact and than it can be unpredictable.

It's just that mining for batteries has a much much broader impact.

Gold mining in Peru:
View attachment 1758621

Lithium mine in Ukraine
View attachment 1758623

It's also worth noting that a lot of the mines require that a river be dammed to service their requirements.

There are hardly anymore feasible spots to build pumped hydro around the world. Battery storage will soon take over, Texas for example is installing a ridiculous amount of BESS this year and next.

As for environmental impacts, hard to properly calculate those, a lot will depend on our ability to recycle the batteries come decommissioning time.