Eskom putting generating units on cold reserve

mylesillidge

mylesillidge

Journalist
Joined
Jul 29, 2021
Messages
1,570
Reaction score
1,469
Eskom generating so much electricity it's switching units off

Eskom's generation fleet is performing so well that the power utility is placing some of its units on cold reserve due to excess capacity, Sunday Times reports.

Eskom head of generation Bheki Nxumalo says generation units are typically switched off for a few days, which helps the power utility save money and resources when capacity dramatically exceeds demand.
 
bruce_the_loon said:
To keep your part of the grid from exploding, not because the power stations can't feed you enough power.
Click to expand...
But it is a form of load shedding

So lets say a unit is looking dodgy another unit is started up and this one goes into planned unplanned maintenance

And no shedding because demand was low enough to not highlight the problem

Do we just assume that they switch off good units?

You don't fix a fleet overnight

Yes it is looking awesome
At the moment

We simply have no clue

What % is actual change
What % is dumb luck
What % is less economic activity

Now yes with more and more people seeing the cost benefits of solar that dumb luck % may even increase

And shedding is really behind us for now

We are seeing more EV vehicles that charge with what ?

The bmw ix has a 11kw onboard charger weren't they complaining about 3kw geyser only coming on for 2 hours at a time while an EV will take up to 9hrs depending how empty it got

They always say the battle was won the war isn't over

I think this is one of those scenarios
 
Last edited:
“If you look at the amount of money that was spent, this was a cheaper option from where I’m sitting and where we are at Eskom, to say lets fix the current fleet,” said Nxumalo.

WOW, SUCH LOGIC is unprecedented.

So where are the other 20 GW that is not available at the moment?
 
Nxumalo noted that Eskom produced more than 35,000MW daily in the last week of July, approximately 3,000MW higher than peak demand.
Click to expand...
Nxumalo is confused, Eskom only generate 24GW of coal:
1723366778860.png
and yet he's a genius:
Nxumalo previously said Eskom’s decision to fix its existing generation fleet rather than build new generation capacity is paying off and saving the entity a lot of money.
He explained that capacity losses had fallen below 9,000MW, roughly 7,000MW less than at the same time in 2023.
He said the investment required to add that amount of new capacity would be around R100 billion. Fixing their existing power stations was much cheaper.
“If you look at the amount of money that was spent, this was a cheaper option from where I’m sitting and where we are at Eskom, to say lets fix the current fleet,” said Nxumalo.
Click to expand...

All the genius needs to do now is increase the price again another 44%:
1723367037181.png

www.dailymaverick.co.za

Eskom wants an increase in electricity tariffs of up to 44% for next year

Eskom will ask SA’s energy regulator for an electricity tariff increase of 36.15% in 2025 for customers it directly charges and supplies. Customers relying on electricity supply from local authorities (municipalities) could also be slapped with an increase of 43.55%.
www.dailymaverick.co.za www.dailymaverick.co.za
 
wingnut771 said:
Yeah, load reduction is when they turn the transformer off during peak times to stop it tripping from too much load because they're too cheap to upgrade it.
Click to expand...
Well only 11% are paying for the electricity soooo
 
FiestaST said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1822537744817532950
Click to expand...
35,000MW daily doesn't even make sense. If you're talking about power over time it's measured in MWh.

Also, the reason they are producing more than demanded is because there are a crapload of private solar installations in SA. About 10GW worth in fact.

This alone would be enough to shut down several coal power stations during the day if Eskom had proper grid-feeding arrangements instead of ripping people off to the point where it's cheaper not to feed back into the grid.
 
Where half the big corporations moved to Renewables, no wonder the demand is less. Consumers/Companies had to take the hit and fork out at a premium due to their lies and corruption, now they gloat like they did something fantastic. Not saying they are not doing maintenance etc now, but they can actually afford to now that the load isn't so much.

If only they clunts didn't let it get to such a state in the first place, this could of all been just a bad dream.
34 years ago, there was a generating capacity of 40GW. Just saying

1723370470625.png
 
wingnut771 said:
Yeah, load reduction is when they turn the transformer off during peak times to stop it tripping from too much load because they're too cheap to upgrade it.
Click to expand...
They do upgrade them where there is a chance of getting their return on investment, otherwise it's a waste of money to upgrade things for people who don't pay.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter