Electricity and Control December 2022

TRANSFORMERS, SUBSTATIONS + CABLES

the planned maintenance. He noted too, continuing high levels of damage and vandalism of Eskom’s network assets. “This clearly presents a serious safety risk and can lead to interruptions of supply,” he said. However, he also conveyed Eskom’s appreciation to the communities, farmers and landowners, who report defects or damage to the utility’s infrastructure across the country. He added that Transmission is continuing with the fo cused implementation of its asset replacement and mod ernisation strategy: monitoring obsolescence and focusing on asset condition assessment, which enables it to identify and plan proactively for assets to be replaced or renewed. New generation connection capacity Scheppers emphasised that, “Addressing South Africa’s generation capacity challenges will continue to require a collaborative multi-stakeholder approach characterised by openness and transparency. “In this spirit of transparency, we have recently developed and published the transmission network’s Generation Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA) report, which is available on the Eskom website. This serves to guide potential developers of new generation capacity as to where Transmission grid capacity is available. The information is intended to contribute to the efficient development of new generation capacity, and contribute to alleviating the energy crisis.” Strengthening the grid Touching briefly on progress since the TDP2021 was de livered in October 2021, Scheppers said notable progress has been made in implementing identified capital projects – and this had been achieved despite the negative impact of the pandemic over the past two years. He highlighted specific projects commissioned across the country’s provinces, including the Western Cape, KZN, the Free State, Limpopo, and Northern Cape and noted that: - A total of six IPP projects contributing 682 MW were commissioned, bringing the overall total to 91 IPP projects providing a contribution of over 7 000 MW - The additional IPP projects were integrated into the national transmission grid in the Northern, Western, and Eastern Cape, underpinned by investments in new substations and enhancements of transformer capacity. TDP 2022 Turning to TDP 2022 Scheppers reiterated that the TDP is an evolving document that is updated annually, taking account of new developments in the energy landscape. These informed Eskom’s upscaling of the requirement for new generation capacity over the next 10 years to 53 GW. It envisages this will come mainly from renewable energy sources, including in areas with limited transmission infra structure. He said the TDP 2022 and the Grid Connection Capacity Assessment 2024 (GCCA-2024) have highlighted the

Recognising constraints on transmission networks in some parts of the country, Eskom plans to accelerate investments in developing new corridors and substations. significant constraints of transmission networks, mainly in the Northern, Eastern, and Western Cape. “This will require accelerating investments in transmission infrastructure by developing new corridors and substations, while also strengthening existing substations. We are taking steps to fast-track what we call accelerated transformer projects to unlock grid capacity.” Regarding the longer term 10-year plan to extend the transmission grid by 14 200 km of extra-high voltage lines – this was covered in more detail in subsequent presenta tions, looking at specific requirements across the different regions of the country. “To expedite delivery of the grid strengthening projects planned over the next five years requires us, collectively, to take extraordinary measures,” Scheppers said. “It will require careful planning on our part, as well as alignment, coordination and support from all key stakeholders. We continue to participate in the NECOM/NatJoints initiatives, and to collaborate with various key stakeholders to enable the successful rollout of the TDP.” Integrating renewable energy resources Scheppers also highlighted that, “As the energy mix changes, and in particular, as we retire more of the large synchronous generators and increase the portfolio of inverter-based renewable energy resources, the behaviour of the power system changes drastically. We must design and engineer the power system in such a way that we can ensure stability of the power system. Ancillary Services requirements play a key role, here,” he said. “In addition, we have commissioned further advanced power system modelling and analysis focused specifically on system stability. We expect to conclude these studies during the first half of next year. “This is a new and excit ing chapter for Transmission,” Scheppers said, “which I am sure our network planners are looking forward to.”

Progress on the NTC Providing a brief update on the legal separation of the

DECEMBER 2022 Electricity + Control

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