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darth_nadoma OP t1_izs2c4o wrote

It is the first large scale Electricity storage facility in the Republic of South Africa and on the continent as a whole. Indeed we are seeing a growing wave of such developments in various corners of the world map.

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 facility will have a capacity of 8 MW, equivalent to 32
MWh 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.

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BaronVonLazercorn t1_izse1pb wrote

Seven to twelve months? Cool, can't wait to hear how "it's almost done" six years from now

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MostLarble t1_izt8vpq wrote

...and needing few more hundred million rands to complete because of reasons. I want to be wrong on this.

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Thaldoras t1_izt3d7k wrote

Something to note. It is the first grid scale Battery electricity storage facility in South Africa. But it is not the first electricity storage facility. We already have pumped hydro storage.

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[deleted] t1_izs3rh5 wrote

That’s not good enough.

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JustWhatAmI t1_izs93l4 wrote

So... don't bother doing it? What's your point

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BaronVonLazercorn t1_izsdubu wrote

They're massively in debt, they can't keep any power stations functioning, it takes them 10 years to build new power stations that end up basically exploding the moment they turn them on.

South Africans don't want new batteries, they want a functioning electrical grid

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DragoonXNucleon t1_izso6af wrote

So building infrastructure which helps the grid during peak use times is bad then, eh?

Some people just gotta bitch about everything.

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BaronVonLazercorn t1_izsv7hz wrote

Yeah, how dare I bitch about being without power for 6-8 hours a day, every day.

Some people just have to tell others to get over situations they have no clue about.

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[deleted] t1_izsp2vo wrote

Well we’re suffering from outages RIGHT NOW.

7-12 months to build this station is laughable, whoever wrote that article doesn’t know South Africa. It’ll probably take 2 years, generate half the amount for electricity said to be generated, AND THEN baaam! Something goes wrong, then there’s a scandal

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MilkshakeBoy78 t1_iztzftc wrote

> So building infrastructure which helps the grid during peak use times is bad then, eh?

yeah if you cant maintain your current infrastructure, dont build new ones.

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pleasefindthis t1_izscq3j wrote

I imagine this is too little too late for many South Africans and this is still, frustratingly slow. Loadshedding, or controlled blackouts, have been and on-again off-again part of South African life since 2008, and not enough has been done to update and modernize the grid since then - in recent weeks it’s gotten to the point that many cities are regularly without electricity for 9 hours or more a day. This, on top of everything else, has devastated the economy, made it impossible for students to study, destroyed infrastructure and personal belongings because of the constant surges from the power going off and then coming back on multiple times a day, and widened the existing gap in society between those who can afford generators and batteries and continue to function, and those who can’t. I agree the comment doesn’t add anything to the conversation, just voicing why people are frustrated.

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[deleted] t1_izsobcq wrote

We have tons of coal ready to be burnt.

Just do maintenance on existing power stations, and keep the lights on.

Now we have to wait a year for a battery centre that can only power 2/10 of our biggest city. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to me

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