| Grootvlei Power Station | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country | South Africa |
| Location | Grootvlei, Mpumalanga |
| Coordinates | 26°46′S28°30′E / 26.767°S 28.500°E |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date | 1969 |
| Owner(s) | Eskom |
| Operator(s) | |
| Thermal power station | |
| Primary fuel | Coal |
| Turbine technology | |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 2 |
| Units planned | 6 × 200 MW |
| Nameplate capacity | 1,200 Megawatt [1] |
Grootvlei Power Station is a coal-fired power station located in Grootvlei, Mpumalanga, South Africa.
The first of Grootvlei's six units was commissioned in 1969. In 1989 three units were mothballed and in 1990 the other three followed. Due to the power crisis being experienced in South Africa, Eskom decided to return the station to service. By 2008 three of Grootvlei's units were back online, providing 585MW to the national grid. [2]
Grootvlei's units 5 and 6 were the first test facilities for dry cooling in South Africa. Unit 6 has an indirect dry cooling system.
On 22 July 2022, Unit 2 suffered a fire caused by a leaking fuel oil supply/return pipeline. [3]
The station consists of six 200 megawatts (270,000 hp) units for a total installed capacity of 1,200 megawatts (1,600,000 hp). The design efficiency at the rated Turbine Maximum Continuous Rating is 32.90%.
In mid-December 2022, at the request of the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, and President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister of Defence Thandi Modise deployed a small contingent of SANDF troops at the station (besides at Camden, Majuba and Tutuka) to curb growing threats of sabotage, theft, vandalism, and corruption. [4]
Koeberg Nuclear Power Station is a nuclear power station in South Africa. It is currently the only one on the entire African continent. It is located 30 km north of Cape Town, near Melkbosstrand on the west coast of South Africa. Koeberg is owned and operated by the country's only national electricity supplier, Eskom.
Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom (Afrikaans: Elektrisiteitsvoorsieningskommissie) is a South African electricity public utility. Eskom was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM). Eskom represents South Africa in the Southern African Power Pool. The utility is the largest producer of electricity in Africa, and was among the top utilities in the world in terms of generation capacity and sales. It is the largest of South Africa's state owned enterprises. Eskom operates a number of notable power stations, including Matimba Power Station and Medupi Power Station in Lephalale, Kusile Power Station in Witbank, Kendal Power Station, and Koeberg Nuclear Power Station in the Western Cape Province, the only nuclear power plant in Africa.
The Yallourn Power Station, now owned by EnergyAustralia a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong-Kong-based CLP Group, is located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia, beside the Latrobe River, with the company town of Yallourn located to the south west. Yallourn PS was a complex of six brown coal–fired thermal power stations built progressively from the 1920s to the 1960s; all except one have now been decommissioned. Today, only the 1,450 megawatts (1,940,000 hp) Yallourn W plant remains. It is the second largest power station in Victoria, supplying 22% of Victoria's electricity and 8% of the National Electricity Market. The adjacent open cut brown coal mine is the largest open cut coal mine in Australia, with reserves sufficient to meet the projected needs of the power station to 2028. On 10 March 2021, EnergyAustralia announced that it will close the Yallourn Power Station in mid-2028, four years ahead of schedule, and instead build a 350 megawatt battery in the Latrobe Valley by the end of 2026. At the time, Yallourn produced about 20% of Victoria's electricity.
The Palmiet Pumped Storage Scheme consists of two 200 megawatts (270,000 hp) turbine units located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) upstream of the Kogelberg Dam on the Palmiet River near Cape Town, South Africa. The pumped-storage hydroelectricity plant is capable of responding to a surge in peak power demand in minutes. At night, excess power on the grid generated by conventional coal and nuclear plants is used to pump water to the upper Rockview Dam overlooking Gordon's Bay.
Kendal Power Station is a coal-fired power station in Mpumalanga, South Africa. It is sited in a coal-mining area; one of its sources is AEMFC's coal mine at Vlakfontein, near Ogies.
The Bell Bay Power Station was a power station located in Bell Bay, on the Tamar River, Tasmania, Australia, adjacent to the Tamar Valley Power Station, with which it was often confused. It was commissioned between 1971 and 1974 as an oil fired thermal power station, and was converted to natural gas in 2003, after the commissioning of the Tasmanian Gas Pipeline, a submarine gas pipeline which transports natural gas from Longford, Victoria, under Bass Strait, to Bell Bay, Tasmania. As the power station's primary role was to provide system security in the event of drought for Tasmania's predominantly hydro-electric based generation system it only was rarely called on to operate, resulting in intervals of five to eight years between periods of significant use. After the commissioning of Basslink in 2006, the power station was decommissioned in 2009.
Duvha Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom. The 300 metres (980 ft) tall chimneys at Duvha are the second and third tallest structures in Africa, only a chimney located at the Secunda CTL plant is taller.
Niederaussem Power Station is a lignite-fired power station in the Bergheim Niederaussem/Rhein Erft circle, owned by RWE. It consists of nine units, which were built between 1963 and 2003. It is the second-largest lignite coal power plant in operation in Germany, with total output capacity of 3,864 MW and a net capacity of 3,396 MW. The plant is estimated to have been one of the ten most carbon polluting coal-fired power plants in the world in 2018, at 27.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, and its emissions intensity is estimated to be 45.1% higher relative to the average for all fossil-fueled plants in Germany. According to the study Dirty Thirty, issued in 2007 by the WWF, Niederaussem Power Station is the second worst power station in Europe in terms of mercury emissions due to the use of lignite.
The Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme is a pumped-storage power station in the escarpment of the Little Drakensberg range straddling the border of the KwaZulu-Natal and Free State provinces, South Africa. It is about 22 km (14 mi) North-East of Van Reenen.
Medupi Power Station is a Dry-cooled coal-fired power station built by Eskom near Lephalale in Limpopo province, South Africa. The station consists of 6 generating units with a nameplate capacity of 800 MW each bringing the total installed capacity of 4,800 MW.
Kiira Hydroelectric Power Station, is a hydroelectric power station in Uganda, with an installed capacity of 200 megawatts (270,000 hp).
Arnot Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom. Coal from the Arnot coal mine directly feeds the station.
Camden Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom.
Komati Power Station, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom. Its 300 metre tall chimney was built in 1979, and is one of the tallest structures in the country. Komati is one of power stations with a common steam range, meaning that its nine boilers jointly feed the nine generators. Other stations are Tutuka Power Station and Matimba Power Station.
Kriel Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom. It is located about 4 km from Matla Power Station just outside the town of Kriel.
Majuba Power Station between Volksrust and Amersfoort in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom. Majuba is Eskom's only power station that is not linked to a specific mine and it receives its coal from various sources.
Matimba Power Station close to Ellisras, Limpopo Province, South Africa, is a dry-cooled coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom.
Tutuka Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom. It is a twin sister to Duvha Power Station.
Kusile Power Station in South Africa is a coal-fired power plant by state electricity utility Eskom in Mpumalanga.
The South African energy crisis or Loadshedding is an ongoing period of widespread national blackouts of electricity supply. It began in the later months of 2007, and continues to the present. The South African government-owned national power utility, and primary power generator, Eskom, and various parliamentarians attributed these rolling-blackouts to insufficient generation capacity.
