South Africa’s power grid is under pressure:
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GUEST - Malcolm Van Harte - ESKOM Smart Grid Senior Manager
The grid is made up of three building blocks: generation, transmission and distribution. Generation consists of power stations (or plants) that generate electricity. Examples of these are the newly built Kusile and Medupi power stations. South Africa has a generation capacity of approximately 58 GW – enough to power 26 million kettles concurrently – mostly made up of Eskom’s coal-burning power plants. Eskom’s share of this is a generation capacity of 44 GW, of which 38 GW is from coal-powered stations.
Transmission comprises the 28,000 km of high voltage lines that transport electricity at high voltage levels (such as 400 kV or 765 kV) to cities and towns. There, it branches out to 325,000 km of lower-voltage lines that distribute electricity to homes and businesses. In comparison, New Zealand has 150,000 km for a tenth of South Africa’s population and the UK has over 800,000 km. The transmission lines and distribution lines therefore connect the generation plants and users in a network that collectively form the grid, which operates at a synchronised alternating current frequency of 50Hz.
The grid is made up of three building blocks: generation, transmission and distribution. Generation consists of power stations (or plants) that generate electricity. Examples of these are the newly built Kusile and Medupi power stations. South Africa has a generation capacity of approximately 58 GW – enough to power 26 million kettles concurrently – mostly made up of Eskom’s coal-burning power plants. Eskom’s share of this is a generation capacity of 44 GW, of which 38 GW is from coal-powered stations.
Transmission comprises the 28,000 km of high voltage lines that transport electricity at high voltage levels (such as 400 kV or 765 kV) to cities and towns. There, it branches out to 325,000 km of lower-voltage lines that distribute electricity to homes and businesses. In comparison, New Zealand has 150,000 km for a tenth of South Africa’s population and the UK has over 800,000 km. The transmission lines and distribution lines therefore connect the generation plants and users in a network that collectively form the grid, which operates at a synchronised alternating current frequency of 50Hz.
