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ABB secures $23m Eskom order

15 September 2010

Multinational power and automation technology group ABB has won a US$23-million (about R163-million) order from Eskom to provide a plant solution for the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme, currently under construction on the border of the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

The Ingula plant will have the capacity to generate 1 333 megawatts of hydropower to be integrated into the South African grid when fully operational in 2014.

Turnkey solution

As part of the turnkey solution for the power plant, ABB will be responsible for the design, engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of the project.

Key products to be supplied include the service and auxiliary transformers, dry-type distribution transformers and medium- and low-voltage switchgear.

"ABB has a strong track record in providing power and automation solutions that enable pumped storage plants to operate at high levels of efficiency and reliability," ABB global power generation business head Franz-Josef Mengede said in a statement this week.

"The Ingula project will generate a significant amount of renewable hydropower to help meet the growing demand for electricity in South Africa."

Reservoirs, underground waterways

The Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme will comprise an upper and a lower reservoir. The reservoirs, 4.5-kilometres apart, will be connected by underground waterways to a subterranean generating plant with four 333MW pump turbines.

During times of peak energy consumption, water will be released from the upper reservoir through the pump turbines to the lower reservoir to generate electricity. When energy consumption is low, the process will be reversed, and water will be pumped from the lower to the upper reservoir.

It is estimated that South Africa will require an additional 40 000MW of power by 2025.

SAinfo reporter