Five Eskom units fail - Load-shedding could be imminent

wingnut771 said:
Remind me again, what does the "Available Generation Capacity" consist of?
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Lupus said:
Their coal plants, the imported storage, nuclear and pumped storage as far as I know.
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If it includes pumped storage then why burn diesel like you say? 2GW difference between supply and demand which is not even counting renewables afaik.
 
wingnut771 said:
If it includes pumped storage then why burn diesel like you say? 2GW difference between supply and demand which is not even counting renewables afaik.
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They don't always use the pumped storage.
 
I guestimate out pumped storage is about 3GW, so take that off the capacity and we're left with 25GW coal.

edit: and 14 OCGTs being used (14x150MW) = 2.1GW so actually only have 23GW coal out of 40GW installed.
 
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Neptuner said:
Burning diesel is the last resort. Pumped storage is only used during evening and morning peak.
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That's the theory, and the least cost option. However when your baseload is screwed, you use diesel and pumped storage 18 hours a day just to meet average demand levels (plus contingencies).

The current shortfall is why when something major breaks, we never start with Stage 1 load shedding from 5pm to 9pm, but immediately go to Stage 2 for 24/7.
 
wingnut771 said:
I guestimate out pumped storage is about 3GW, so take that off the capacity and we're left with 25GW coal.

edit: and 14 OCGTs being used (14x150MW) = 2.1GW so actually only have 23GW coal out of 40GW installed.
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Nope the OCTGs are not included in the Available capacity there, I used to think that, until Sikonathi corrected us.
 
Gordon_R said:
That's the theory, and the least cost option. However when your baseload is screwed, you use diesel and pumped storage 18 hours a day just to meet average demand levels (plus contingencies).

The current shortfall is why when something major breaks, we never start with Stage 1 load shedding from 5pm to 9pm, but immediately go to Stage 2 for 24/7.
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Spot on, the baseload specifically the coal fired units is the root of the problem. What exacerbates the problem is operating these baseload plants like peaking units it creates more problems.
 
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