Saudi Arabian power generation company Acwa Power’s Bokpoort concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, in the Northern Cape, has become the first renewable facility on the continent to complete a full week of continuous around-the-clock operation.
The operation set the new African continent benchmark by achieving 13 days, or 312 hours, of continuous operations on October 23, which is almost double the previous record it had set in March 2016.
This translate to about 13 GWh of energy supply to the grid at an energy load factor of 83%, says Bokpoort CSP CEO Christo Spammer, who notes that this is equal to about 20 hours of full load operations daily (with a 50 MW turbine) akin to base-load technologies.
In a November 1 statement, the company says the accomplishment was made possible by optimally managing 9.3 hours of the thermal salt storage system overnight, which allowed for a “perfectly timed transition” to the solar field every morning for the entire duration of this effort.
The 50 MW CSP plant with thermal storage was commissioned during the second bid window of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme and has been setting consistent records since the start of its operation in 2016.
“This new feat stems from the consistent monthly production records being set by Bokpoort CSP since June. The plant delivered the highest ever production for the months of August and September and has continued to deliver an excellent performance in October, achieving an all-time highest daily record of 1 028 MWh earlier this month,” Spammer says.
The consistency and reliability of the plant performance is evident from its 101.2% cumulative production performance from June to October, the company adds, noting that this is in relation to the production simulation model that sets the design expectations of the Bokpoort CSP plant.
“The fact that this performance was achieved during a global pandemic amid national lockdown protocols, and where the Covid-19 virus had impacted site operations and affected deployment restrictions, is phenomenal,” Spammer enthuses.