By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom has launched construction on the first energy storage facility under Eskom’s flagship Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project.
The sod-turning ceremony was held at the Elandskop BESS site, located within Msunduzi and Impendle Local Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal.
The project is being developed by Eskom and Hyosung Heavy Industries, one of the appointed service providers for the BESS project.
Construction will take between seven and twelve months, and the batteries on the site will be charged from the main grid via Eskom’s Elandskop substation, the group said.
The facility will have a capacity of 8MW, equivalent to 32MWh of distributed electricity, enough to power a town such as Howick for four hours. Among the notable benefits of the BESS is that it will boost the network during peak hours, thereby reducing the strain on the network during peak hours, the utility said.
“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,” said André de Ruyter, Eskom Group Chief Executive, speaking 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.”
Elandskop is part of Phase 1 of Eskom’s BESS project, which includes the installation of approximately 199MW additional capacity, with 833MWh storage of distributed battery storage plants at eight Eskom Distribution substation sites throughout the country.
This phase also includes about 2MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity.
The cost of the project will be approximately R11 billion and is being funded through concessional loans from the World Bank, African Development Bank and the New Development Bank.
Phase 2 of the project includes the installation of a further 144MW of storage capacity, equivalent to 616MWh, at four Eskom Distribution sites and one transmission site. The solar PV capacity in this phase will be 58MW.
The BESS project will utilise large-scale utility batteries with a capacity of 1,440MWh per day and a 60MW PV capacity. It will be one of the largest BESS projects to be developed and implemented in South Africa.
All Phase 1 sites are planned to be commissioned by 30 June 2023 and Phase 2 by December 2024.
Meanwhile Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has accused Eskom of “actively agitating for the overthrow of the state” as it continues to implement load shedding, which hit Stage 6 this week as power plants suffered breakdowns.
At a signing ceremony for 13 new independent power projects on Thursday, Mantashe said load shedding was becoming worse than state capture because of how it directly affects citizens and takes a toll on the economy.
“Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state”, Mantashe said in Johannesburg.
The minister said Eskom simply had to fix its operational problems. In his view, six months of focused maintenance ought to be ample time to address the matter.
Mantashe said that the power crisis had inhibited growth in key economic industries such as mining.
With the signing on of the 13 new sustainable power projects, Mantashe said 6 800MW of additional power had been brought on to the grid during his tenure as mining and energy minister.
On the sidelines of the event, Mantashe reiterated that Eskom management had to fix the operational issues or step down.
He said he would welcome the utility – which currently falls under the Department of Public Enterprises – back into his portfolio.