POWER October 2014 - 22

TOP PLANTS
Camden Power Station,
Mpumalanga Province,
South Africa
Owner/operator: Eskom
Courtesy: Eskom
South Africa began mothballing coal-fired plants almost 25 years ago when reserve
margins were high and independent power producers (IPPs) were invited to invest.
Ten years later, mass electrification, rapid industrialization, and low power prices
that failed to attract IPPs caused reserves to dip to dangerous levels. Camden was
one of three coal plants brought out of retirement to keep the lights on.
Dr. Robert Peltier, PE
E
skom, South Africa's largest utility, was
established in 1923 as the Electricity
Supply Commission and was converted
into a public company, wholly owned by the
government, in July 2002. Eskom produces
about 95% of the country's electricity and
45% of Africa's total demand. The utility has
a generation capacity of about 42 GW and
plans to double its capacity by 2030. About
90% of South Africa's electricity is generated
by coal-fired stations, 5% by its single nuclear
plant, and the remaining 5% by hydroelectric
and pumped storage plants. South Africa
has very meager conventional natural gas resources,
and though there are potential shale
gas deposits, none have been developed.
Resource Planning Problems
Construction of new power facilities in South
Africa was once a brisk business, with 31
22
GW of new capacity built between 1970 and
1990. In 1989, Eskom found itself with substantial
surplus capacity and a reserve margin
exceeding 25%, yet it still projected a need
to build new power stations by 2007, particularly
coal and pumped storage facilities, to
meet the demands of its expanding economy
and mass electrification.
Government regulators believed that investment
in private power generation would
balance the expected power deficit, but low
power prices failed to attract independent
power producers. South Africa's mass electrification
program that began in the early
1990s and the ongoing rapid industrialization
of the country began to put enormous strain
on the electricity supply system. Reserve
margins slid to less than 5% by 2008 after
virtually no investment in power infrastructure
for almost 20 years.
www.powermag.com
In 2003, rising electricity demand and
dwindling power supply margins finally
convinced government regulators to approve
Eskom's plans for building new power and
transmission infrastructure. Eskom also began
reinvigorating its generation fleet by
bringing plants out of retirement and refurbishing
many of its middle-aged plants as the
quickest and least-expensive first step to meet
the country's insatiable appetite for electricity.
Simultaneously, Eskom began work on a
new generation of large-scale, high efficiency
coal-fired plants as well as demand-side
management and improved system efficiency
programs to trim demand growth. As an immediate
first step, Eskom added 1,000 MW
of diesel-fired combustion turbines to provide
new capacity as demand continued to rise.
South Africa began to experience widespread
rolling blackouts, culminating in the
POWER | October 2014
http://www.powermag.com
POWER October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER October 2014
