Secret power ship plan from Eskom chair

Former Eskom chairperson Zola Tsotsi, who resigned from the utility’s board at the end of March, had plans to address South Africa’s power problems with three solutions. This is according to a report in the City Press.

Tsotsi’s plan involved promoting independent power producers (IPP), which the City Press said was contained in a letter which he wrote to Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Petterson.

According to the newspaper Tsotsi promoted three projects to add power to the South Africa power grid:

• Restore the 500MW Ingagane Power Station in Newcastle
• Aggregate 1,000MW of power from co-generators into the South African grid
• Order seaborne power stations from the Turkish group Karadeniz

Using power ships will not be something entirely new for Eskom. Moneyweb reported that Eskom rented a barge-mounted turbine when the Koeberg nuclear power plant was struggling in 2006.

Some African countries, notably Ghana, get electricity from power ships, which are essentially floating power stations. These ships could connect to the grid at coastal cities such as Durban, East London, and Cape Town.

However, such electricity would be powered by oil or gas, which would determine whether its price was economic for South Africa.

Karadeniz power ships

The Karadeniz Energy Group developed its “Power of Friendship” project for countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The aim is to “fulfil the urgent electricity needs of all countries in the world with our Powership fleet”.

According to Karadeniz its power ships are “high technology floating power plants designed and constructed to fulfil the urgent electricity needs of the countries through rental contracts or power purchase agreements (PPA)”.

Power ships are delivered to the client countries as a complete power plant ready to operate immediately.

Power ship capacities range from 45MW to 500MW, and are delivered between 60 days and 180 days after ordering to provide medium-term solutions with contracts of between 2 years to 5 years.

Karadeniz Energy Group powership

Karadeniz powership

Karadeniz powership

Powership

Power ship construction

Power ships are constructed with special technology which can operate both on liquid fuels (HFO/RFO) as well as natural gas with a dual fuel option.

With high efficiency and availability, power ships can provide uninterrupted electricity at various high voltage levels.

Operation and maintenance of the power ships are also provided by the Karadeniz Energy Group.

Powership construction

Powership construction

Powership construction