Visit to Koeberg and Ankerlig Power Stations, Atlantis

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Thursday, 21 July 2011
Written by Paul Geddes
Back to: Educationals

 On Thursday 21st July, we met at Koeberg Nuclear power station, situated north of Cape Town, along the West Coast. Our excursion would involve a learning experience at Koeberg Nuclear power station’s visitors centre, followed by a visit to the relatively newer Ankerlig gas turbine power station in Atlantis.

 

The issue of power generation is becoming increasingly prevalent these days and it was thus apt that we had the opportunity to discover how South Africa stands when it comes to power generation. At Koeberg Nuclear power station’s well equipped visitors centre, we watched a presentation and a video which increased our understanding of power generation and put many issues in perspective for us.

The presentation provided a highly informative summary of how power is generated in South Africa. Eskom is a state owned company which  provides 95% of South Africa’s electricity. The presenter, Melvyn Miles, described how Eskom works and the methods that they employ to meet the energy consumption needs of South Africa’s industries, businesses and residents. He explained how the national grid is co-ordinated, which is the network into which each of Eskom’s 27 power stations pump their electricity. The system Eskom uses to send power across the country from province to province is truly something to marvel at. Indeed, the co-ordination which is employed is the application of engineering brilliance.

The mix of power station types used in South Africa was explained, along with interesting statistics relating to the costs and benefits of each particular type.

We discovered that all the coal-fired stations provide more than 80% of power in SA, whilst Koeberg Nuclear power station, the only nuclear power station in Africa, contributes a surprisingly small 4% of South Africa’s energy needs. Eskom also makes use of gas turbine, hydro and pump-storage power stations. Only one small wind-farm is operational and another is being planned further up the West Coast at Vredendal. Eskom is looking into utilising more renewable sources of energy.  We were provided with some useful insights into Eskom’s long-term strategy for energy generation in South Africa. We began to understand the challenge of increasing capacity as well as the exciting opportunities which are available to Eskom.

Melvyn also gave us another perspective on the issues relating to power generation. As consumers, it is not always clear why Eskom makes certain decisions. The presentation described issues relating to power generation from the producers perspective. For example, Eskom has always been partly owned by government and thus has been subject to strategic government policies. This has influenced its pricing history, which has generally been one of low tariffs for consumers. We heard the inside scoop on why electricity tariffs are at their current level and how South Africa got into the situation of “not having enough power”. Also, we learnt why Eskom is reluctant to use renewable sources of power on a large scale. Eskom is no longer a parastatal and is now owned 100% by the government and is known as an State Owned Company (SOC).

Energy and environmental issues are hotly debated these days as we as humans try to find a way to meet growing energy demands within the context of limited resources. To meet our needs, we are required to use the earth’s provision, yet not deplete what we have, nor expose ourselves to possible dangers involved in energy production. Melvyn described why nuclear power has many distinct advantages in terms of environmental sustainability. The area around Koeberg is a nature reserve and sports many hiking and biking trails. With regards to safety measures, we were impressed by Eskom’s stringent safety procedures and commitment to following standardised safety regulations.

After lunch we headed to the nearby area of Atlantis to learn about Ankerlig power station. When we arrived, our host greeted us and told us about why Ankerlig was built and gave us a description of the more technical aspects of the power station. We had the opportunity to speak to an actual operator within the control rooms, who gave us a great description of how the station works. He described a few basic concepts, such as how a generator works and once we were led into the turbine hall, the process used to create power was explained and pointed out. It is quite amazing to see and hear how power stations use complex systems of water, steam and heat to provide power on a mass-scale. The operator explained that Ankerlig station is actually really easy to run – his job is merely to babysit the automated processes. He pointed out that Ankerlig is one of the most expensive power stations to run, since it uses Diesel fuel, which is burned up at a rapid rate. Since gas turbine stations are many times more expensive to run than other types of stations, they are only switched on during peak periods daily (06:00 – 08:00 and 17:00 – 20:00) and are called peaking power stations. The reason they are used at all is that they are able to start up in matter of minutes compared to coal-fired and other types of stations which take much longer. For this reason, they are effective backup suppliers of power.

Possibly the best part of our excursion was being able to fire questions at the presenter. Our hosts were available to field any questions we had about Eskom, power generation and anything related. We learnt a lot from these question and answer sessions and many of the issues which we as consumers wanted to know more about were addressed. As a result of our informative discussions, we all walked out with an improved understanding of Eskom’s role in power production.

As tourist guides, the educational has given us a valuable frame of reference which can be used when engaging with tourists and other visitors to our shores. In many countries, such as Germany, energy issues are hot on the agenda and having a knowledge South Africa’s energy situation allows us to be better guides, simply because we have an understanding of these broader issues which affect our country. Power generation issues affect the aspects of our lives we take for granted so easily – everything that requires electricity. We now have a better grasp of all the complex issues and processes that directly and indirectly affect our quality of life.