Eskom’s Ingula Unit 3 has been successfully synchronised to the national electricity grid, making it the final unit to be connected.
`In August, 2016 Unit 2 of the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme came into commercial operation becoming the second generator after the power plant’s Unit 4 to have completed all the prerequisite quality assurance tests.
According to the South African utility, Ingula Unit 3 was synchronised to the national grid on 6 March 2016 and supported the grid until 6 April 2016 when an electrical incident occurred.
The parastatal confirmed that, after almost 500,000 man-hours of work, without any safety incidents, the team completed the repair and has synchronised the unit back onto the national grid.
Also read: Mega hydropower station in South Africa begins operation
In July this year, President Jacob Zuma launched Ingula’s unit 4 which was the first to come into commercial operation.
However, at the time of the Unit coming online, Eskom noted via a statement that the commercial operation of these two units mark a key milestone towards the full commercial operation of the entire Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme ahead of the scheduled deadline of mid-2017.
The Group’s CEO, Brian Molefe, commented: “The commercial operation of Unit 2 will add an extra 333MW into the national grid, and this will enable us to ensure security of power supply to South African homes and businesses,” said
Brian Molefe, Eskom CEO. “Besides being a catalyst for economic growth, a stable power supply will also enable Eskom, together with municipalities, to rollout electrification programmes to make life easier for millions of households who currently rely on other fuel sources for domestic cooking and heating,” he added.
Besides being part of Eskom’s Peaking fleet of power stations, Ingula can respond to demand increases on the grid within 150 seconds. On completion Ingula will be Africa’s newest and largest pumped storage scheme and the 14th largest in the world.
Additionally, Ingula’s four units are located 350m underground in the world’s largest machine hall in mud-rock.
To turn the more than 500 ton rotating mass of the generator rotor and turbine, water is released from Ingula’s upper dam, Bedford Dam, situated 460m higher and 2km away.
