Where is eskoms national control centre
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Free daily email newsletter Register Now. Download Buy Photos. The six engineers and technicians working a hour shift at Eskom National Control, situated alongside Germiston Lake, in Ekurhuleni, are exuding a quiet confidence that they will be able to manage the network through the evening peak. A multistorey video wall — located in a control room at the heart of a complex so critical that it has been designated a National Key Point — is ablaze with colour.
The six individuals are positioned behind desks, supporting multiple large-screen terminals and computer keyboards. Each desk controls a different aspect of the country-wide network, from transmission and dispatch, to frequency and even events such as fires and lightning. Alongside each name are square blocks, each representing a generating unit. Counterintuitively, solid red indicates that a unit is operating, while the outline of a green square shows it is not.
There are also some solid cyan blocks indicating that digital communications have broken down and that generation information from those stations should be confirmed offline. Only a few of the open-cycle gas turbines OCGTs , which are hugely expensive to run, are shown to be operating, along with some of the pumped-storage units.
Thus, barring any major unforeseen generation losses, Van Heerden is relatively confident Eskom will beat the Thursday evening peak, which will officially endure from to By , demand has breached the 31 MW level and is rising rapidly. Ten minutes later there are indications that some more OCGT and pumped-storage capacity is being introduced. At , demand breaches the 32 MW mark and frequency levels begin to fall.
The 33 MW level is surpassed less than 15 minutes later , by which time just about all the OCGT generators are shown to be operating. The data is used to calculate how much energy is needed by each area and how much the power utility can supply. Eskom can shift power anywhere within the power grid. For example, the new solar-power plant in Kathu in the Northern Cape can send power to Gauteng. Load-shedding is enforced as a last resort when the combined output of the power stations is not enough to supply the grid.
If the grid were to be left to trip, the result would be a nationwide blackout that, according to Eskom, could take days to restore. The short-term fix is load-shedding. As the gap between supply and demand widens, the team starts gearing up to prevent the system from becoming unstable. Send an enquiry email. Write a Review. There are no photos. There are no reviews yet. About Us. Eskom generates, transmits and distributes electricity to industrial, mining, commercial, agricultural and residential customers and redistributors.
Additional power stations and major power lines are being built to meet rising electricity demand in South Africa. Eskom will continue to focus on improving and strengthening its core business of electricity generation, transmission, trading and distribution.