NEWS

The first energy storage facility under Eskom’s flagship BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) project has officially begun construction as marked by a ceremony at the Elandskop BESS site, located within Msunduzi and Impendle Local Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal.

The facility will eventually have a capacity of 8MW, equivalent to 32MWh of distributed electricity. This is enough to power a town such as Howick for four hours. Among the notable benefits of the BESS is that it will boost the network during peak hours, thereby reducing the strain on the network during peak hours.

Construction will take between seven and twelve months and the batteries on the site will be charged from the main grid via Eskom’s Elandskop substation.

Implementing one of the largest BESS projects in SA

Elandskop is part of Phase 1 of Eskom’s BESS project, which includes the installation of approximately 199MW additional capacity, with 833MWh storage of distributed battery storage plants at eight Eskom Distribution substation sites throughout the country. This phase also includes about 2MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity.

Speaking at the launch event, Eskom Group Chief Executive Officer André de Ruyter called the start of the construction of the Elandskop BESS project a positive development in the utility’s efforts to alleviate the pressure on South Africa’s national electricity grid.

“This is a direct response to the urgent need to address South Africa’s long-running electricity crisis by adding more generation capacity to the grid, and also to strengthen the grid by adding more storage and transforming capacity,” said de Ruyter.

Phase 2 of the project includes the installation of a further 144MW of storage capacity, equivalent to 616MWh at four Eskom Distribution sites and one Transmission site. The solar PV capacity in this phase will be 58MW.

The BESS project will utilise large-scale utility batteries with a capacity of 1,440MWh per day and a 60MW PV capacity. It will be one of the largest BESS projects to be developed and implemented in South Africa.

The cost of the project will be approximately R11 billion and is being funded through concessional loans from the World Bank, African Development Bank and the New Development Bank. The procurement process for this project has been set out by funders and Eskom is in compliance with it and internal governance.

“Eskom has identified distributed storage as an alternative to support renewable energy expansion in South Africa and we have taken the necessary steps to ensure the successful implementation of the BESS project,” said Velaphi Ntuli, Eskom’s General Manager: Distribution and Operations Enablement.

All Phase 1 sites are planned to be commissioned by 30 June 2023 and Phase 2 by December 2024.