Eskom breaks ground at first battery storage site
Eskom, in partnership with Hyosung Heavy Industries, has started construction for its first energy storage facility under the power utility’s Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project.
The utility said construction of the facility, located within the Msunduzi and Impendle municipalities in KZN, will take seven to twelve months.
Once completed, the batteries will charge from the main grid via Eskom’s Elandskop substation and will have a capacity of 8MW, which Eskom says is equivalent to 32MWh of distributed electricity.
The facility’s capacity is enough to power a town like Howick for four hours. It will also boost the electricity network and reduce strain during peak hours.
“The beginning of the construction of the Elandskop BESS is a positive development in our efforts to alleviate the pressure on the national electricity grid,” Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said at the event.
“This is a direct response to the urgent need to address South Africa’s long-running electricity crisis by adding more generation capacity to the grid, and also to strengthen the grid by adding more storage and transforming capacity.”
The Elandskop facility forms part of the BESS project’s first phase, which involves the installation of about 199MW of additional capacity, with 833MWh worth of storage at eight Eskom Distribution substation sites across South Africa.
This includes approximately 2MW of solar generation capacity.
The project — estimated to cost R11 billion — is being funded through loans from the World Bank, African Development Bank, and New Development Bank.
“The procurement process for this project has been set out by funders, and Eskom is in compliance with it and internal governance,” Eskom noted in its statement.
Phase 2 of the BESS project will see a further 144MW of storage capacity — equivalent to 616MWh — installed at four Eskom distribution sites and one transmission site. The solar generation capacity in this phase will be 58MW
All Phase 1 sites are planned to be commissioned by 30 June 2023 and Phase 2 by December 2024.
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