Eskom launches largest battery storage project in Africa

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JIMMY MOYAHA: We’re taking a look at Eskom. It has launched a new project which is said to be the largest battery storage project in Africa. I’m joined on the line by the general manager of operations enablement at Eskom, Velaphi Ntuli, to take a look at this. Mr Ntuli, thanks so much for taking the time.

The project has been named the Eskom Battery Energy Storage System, or Bess, as it’s affectionately known. Can you tell us about Bess, how it works, what the thinking there is, and how far you guys are on the project?

VELAPHI NTULI: Good evening, Jimmy, to you and your listeners. Thank you for having us on your show. Yes, today marked our unveiling the successful commissioning of our first battery energy storage system. This was done at the Hex substation, which is just outside Worcester in the Western Cape.

This particular site is a 20-megawatt site that we commissioned today, and [was] supposed to have been handed over.

So the 20-megawatt site basically would be enough to power a small town like Mossel Bay.

Just to give some background on the Eskom battery energy storage system, we embarked a while back on analysing our network and substations – there were substations where we realised that this technology will help us a lot, and it will display some of the critical investment that we need to make to strengthen our networks.

So under Phase 1, we have eight sites that we are working on to put [in] the battery energy storage systems. In essence you would charge these batteries, and during peak-hour time you will then discharge them to the grid to provide grid support, and also to help with what we call national energy saving. So in essence this is what we’re using the storage system for.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Velaphi, how does the system integrate within the current Eskom framework? I ask this because we have been told that things like independent power producers and alternative energy generation sources have a problem plugging into the transmission network of Eskom. Is this the case with Bess, or is this something that you guys have been able to work around?

VELAPHI NTULI: Bess actually makes some of the challenges that we have a bit easier to manage. Currently, we have a constrained network, and what it means is that when everyone is generating it becomes difficult to then discharge and transport that energy right through our transmission line.

So if you have battery energy storage, you can then store that energy and when it’s required you can discharge it to the grid.

But also the other thing that this helps with [is], if you were to couple it with a wind farm, for instance, you would find that in some cases wind blows at 3am in the morning, and you know that at that point the energy demand on the grid is very low. So instead of wasting that energy, you can then pump it into the battery storage system, and when it’s required during the day and you are short of generation capacity, then you are able to discharge that energy to the grid.

So it basically complements and helps us in dealing with load shedding, but also the issues that we are having with grid capacity.

It also provides an alternative for independent power producers if they want to adopt this technology.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Velaphi, let’s look at the sustainability of this initiative. This was a partnership with Hyosung Heavy Industries to develop this system and this technology. Going forward is this something that can be easily replicated as you go into Phases 2, 3 and 4? And if so, what is this going to cost us to implement?

VELAPHI NTULI: Yes, we’ve had a very successful partnership with Hyosung, and with Hyosung we actually have three sites [where] we are doing this, or we are rolling out this battery energy storage system, as I said, [at the] Hex site in the Western Cape.

Then we have two sites in KwaZulu-Natal. One site is in Pongola, and the other site is at Elandskop, which is just outside Pietermaritzburg.

The model that we adopted as Eskom was the EPC [engineering, procurement and construction] model, which is basically you get a supplier that does your engineering or procurement, and they also do your construction. This model has proved to be effective for us on all three sites.

Yes, with any contract there are challenges that you face, but we’ve been able to manage those challenges and deal with them. It’s a model that we adopted and a model that can be replicated in the industry – and it’s effective. You just need to have the right partner that you are working with when you embark on this.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Does this mean that Eskom is going to engage more private-public partnerships in order to get this done at scale?

VELAPHI NTULI: For such projects you do need to go out into the market and get a successful supplier that can help you in developing this. So currently we are doing the eight sites under Phase 1. Six of those sites are currently in construction; the three highest solar sites are well advanced in construction. We are getting into commissioning and finalising commissioning, like in Hex.

There are three other sites which are just beginning commissioning, but those are with another contractor. And we have two sites [where] which we are currently doing the assessment. So we are in [the] tendering process. We are basically doing the assessment and soon we should be able to announce the winning bid, if any come out of that assessment.

So yes, for Phase 1 we are in embarking and we aim to have all eight sites that we’ve identified with battery energy storage systems installed.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Well, we wish you all the best of luck. We hope that we can see some positive outcomes in terms of ending the load shedding problem that we’ve been having to contend with. Thanks so much, Velaphi.

That’s Velaphi Ntuli, who is the general manager for operations enablement at Eskom, giving us an idea of Eskom’s latest project, Bess – the battery energy storage system unveiled today.