Eskom's grid needs a major upgrade before more wind power will do any good

[Jan]

Big problem with Eskom's grid — South Africa faces 10 more years of power cuts

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) senior energy researcher Monique le Roux says that, given available data, another decade of load-shedding is a possible scenario for South Africa.

“It’s a very difficult question to answer,” Le Roux said in an interview on eNCA.

 

[Johnatan56]

The battery storage is based on what cost? Most of the world is at cheaper to have wind/solar and battery storage than coal.

And how are the grid expansion time lines estimated? Is it including the grid infrastructure that has been lost in the last few years due to cable theft?

And how does this compare to building another power plant that will also take even longer than that? How much renewable can be brought online in short term that will max the grid, and how much impact is it just making northern cape etc. Self sufficient?

That's the problem with interviews.

 

[hj007]

Will we get privatised distribution allowed in order to supply municipalities? Then we can do energy brokerage and potentially solve load shedding for those that can afford to pay at least.

 

[zolly]

If we turn every property that's already connected to the grid into a power producer then we can start producing extra power NOW while we expand the grid to other areas which can provide even greater volumes of renewable energy for the northern parts of the country. This may not solve load shedding at night but at very least it may mean we can avoid load shedding during the day.

 

[LazyLion]

The battery storage is based on what cost? Most of the world is at cheaper to have wind/solar and battery storage than coal.

And how are the grid expansion time lines estimated? Is it including the grid infrastructure that has been lost in the last few years due to cable theft?

And how does this compare to building another power plant that will also take even longer than that? How much renewable can be brought online in short term that will max the grid, and how much impact is it just making northern cape etc. Self sufficient?

That's the problem with interviews.

Yeah, you should go explain all of this to them, I'm sure you know more than all of them.

 

[Cranjus McBasketball]

And in 10 years they'll still be talking about how it'll take another 10 years. And 10 years from then they'll be talking about how it'll be another 10 years. Rinse. Repeat

 

[Bighit]

Oh, I thought Load Shedding ends when De Ruyter is gone

 

[Polymathic]

I'm sure the Chinese and Germans would be able to get the grid up and running good enough not to have loadshedding though with the Chinese we'd have black clouds and smog so thick that we won't see the sun for weeks on end

 

[Lupus]

I'm sure the Chinese and Germans would be able to get the grid up and running good enough not to have loadshedding though with the Chinese we'd have black clouds and smog so thick that we won't see the sun for weeks on end

You mean like Germany as well? They fired up coal plants as the wind wasn't providing enough.

 

[Johnatan56]

Yeah, you should go explain all of this to them, I'm sure you know more than all of them.

Read what she actually said, she said it would increase grid cost, not mention that it would decrease production cost, and probably any study she's looked at is out of date. 6:33 you hear her hesitate on answering for a reason, and she also says "battery storage alone for morning/evening peaks".
The discussion is not just solar/wind/battery and that grid capacity is not enough, it's rolling out grid capacity, renewable and whether e.g. more coal is actually cost effective (taking years by which time grid roll-out/upgrade can happen and will probably over-all be cheaper/more environmentally friendly).

And again, you missed point of e.g. taking northern cape and north west, there it will be cheaper to build out, sort their demand "locally":

The summary below shows the relative contribution each province makes to total electricity usage in South Africa as at January 2019 (ranked from biggest to smaller user)

• Gauteng: 23.76%
• KwaZulu-Natal: 19.22%
• Mpumalanga: 15.59%
• North West:12.79%
• Western Cape: 10.22%
• Limpopo: 6.82%
• Free State: 4.50%
• Eastern Cape: 3.92%
• Northern Cape: 3.18%
  

South Africa's economy per province

In this article we take a look at the electricity distributed for use per province per month, as reported by Statistics South Africa. So which province in South Africa uses up the most electricity? Is it a large mining province such as North West, or a po

www.southafricanmi.com

 

[Polymathic]

You mean like Germany as well? They fired up coal plants as the wind wasn't providing enough.

Germany have safety standards with their goal plants and will get the coal burning as clean as possible.

 

[RedViking]

Monique for Eskom boss!

+1

 

[Mekon]

Ramapoes did say the cANCer are the only political party that can end load shedding so 19 years sounds about right considering what a laughable failure they are

 

[borro]

Economic growth

 

[Moto Guzzi]

In UK there seems to be a problem where the cabling from Green sites to Power Network is under spec(Wrong) and needs to be replaced(dig up) at huge costs.

 

[IdlePhaedrus]

In 2022 China installed our entire supposed capacity from coal using PV. One year. Linky.

They are of course also using coal and gas, over and above; we will have to also for baseload for some time.

Here we probably didn't install more than a few hundred mw in 2022, and the last reippp bid window was a complete and utter failure due to the supposed grid constraints in the provinces mentioned.

So, why not over-provision renewables in Limpopo and Mpumalanga at the coal plants that are due to be shut, and implement the "just transition" there.?

I know that De Ruyter initiated this very same process (linky), perhaps that is why he was poisoned.

Regardless that initiative will not be enough by itself, and it is not likely to be fixed until the ANC is voted out. Too many fat greasy fingers in pies.

Gweezy needs to be sacked also.

 

[rvZA]

Even after the largest upgrades ever, wind power will still not even play a role. They should start forgetting about this nonsense. Coal or nuclear is the only way forward. Unfortunately, the country is broke and cannot afford nuclear, so it has to be coal.

But, somehow I think Eskom is totally broke. There is no more money left for upgrading, expanding, building new or even fixing things. I think they are now running the utility until it collapses.

 

[RonSwanson]

Oh, I thought Load Shedding ends when De Ruyter is gone

There are one or two brightsparx on this forum that are wishing for it, but many who actually believe the narrative. Thanks for the reminder and giggles

 

[quovadis]

Lol @ 10 years. Eskom's new/current builds aren't even complete and reliable and it's been over 10 years just for those. I'd be surprised if we've even reached the half-way point of this incompetence and it's been almost 15 years of this nonsense.

 

[cyb3rt]

Even after the largest upgrades ever, wind power will still not even play a role. They should start forgetting about this nonsense. Coal or nuclear is the only way forward. Unfortunately, the country is broke and cannot afford nuclear, so it has to be coal.

But, somehow I think Eskom is totally broke. There is no more money left for upgrading, expanding, building new or even fixing things. I think they are now running the utility until it collapses.

Yep, most likely this last part