South Africans are challenged in the area of electricity knowledge

10th April 2015

By: Terry Mackenzie-hoy

  

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Actually, not all people in this great nation of ours are stupid or, perhaps, even slightly stupid but in one area they seem to be (from my arrogant viewpoint), and that area is knowledge of electricity.

But let me not moan or groan about this – rather, let me assist with education of the masses in this article, which could be subtitled ‘Great electrical truths and half truths . . . what you may and may not know and the facts’.

Electric cars? Here we are talking about cars which are not hybrid cars but actual, plug-into-the-wall, charge-up-and-go-places electric cars. But the charging process is not pollution free – the power comes from somewhere and, as a US publication puts it, “electric cars just shift the burden of pollution from the car’s tailpipe to the power plant’s smokestack”.

Okay, one could theoretically charge an electric car using solar panels that charge the car during the day. Or the solar panels can charge batteries that then charge the car batteries. But there is not going to be an end to fossil fuel/nuclear fuel generation anytime soon and, until this happens, electric cars just shift the burden of pollution from the car to the power plant. Note that charging a car, even super fast, will take at least an hour – filling up with petrol is very much quicker. It may be possible to fill up electric cars with a fluid which sort of keeps the battery charged – the so-called fluid batteries – but these are not here yet. So, when the local game reserve proudly announces that it is switching to pollution-free electric cars, it is not, actually.

Solving our electrical supply problems with ships moored alongside generators in harbours? This assumes: that there is sufficient capacity in harbour shore supply cabling to accept large amounts of power and that ships with huge power generation are available. The Queen Mary 2 has on board about 80 MW power – less than one gas turbine at Eskom gas turbine stations. So, it is not going to happen.

Solving Eskom diesel fuel supply using gas from a gasfield 300 km to the north ? Eskom says first gas is expected to flow during 2018. The gas will come from the Ibhubesi gasfield, Orange basin, South Africa. All good. The depth of the gas reservoir is about 3 000 m and will require the installation of at least one tethered leg production platform. This is going to happen in 2015/16/17. This is a very tight design and construction programme. Too tight to happen in that timeframe.

Getting power from the Inga Falls, in the Democratic Republic of Congo? This will require billions of dollars, a dam, and 2 000 km of high-voltage direct current power line (800 kV) – the longest in the world. This is not going to happen any time soon.

Wind turbines will solve South Africa’s power problems? Clearly, when the wind is not blowing, will have to use . . . what, actually? The turbine operators are very secretive about what power they do and do not produce, but one thing is clear – most of the wind farms have not reached their predicted power output for the simple fact that the wind in South Africa is coastal and sporadic. I have hard data for at least one wind farm that was almost at a standstill in January/February.

And . . . photovoltaic (PV) and solar power plants – will they save the day? Well, it happens, probably. The new solar plant in the Northern Cape can supply power for two hours after darkness. Other PV plants supply power during the day but very consistently and with little maintenance. In the Northern Cape, things do not rust much, owing to there being very little rain (Upington gets about 90 mm a year – Cape Town about five times that – and thus lots of sunshine). Moreover, land is not expensive and power infrastructure not bad.

Finally, there is no such thing as an 11 kVA power line. Electricity does flow through the ground. Lighting has very little electrical energy – it is mostly heat. That’s all.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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