Inside South Africa's Mega Pumped Grid Storage Scheme Upon completion Ingula will be Africa’s newest and largest pumped storage scheme and the 14th largest in the world. Ingula’s four units are located 350 metre underground in the world’s largest machine hall in mud-rock. Eskom recently synchronised the final unit of its Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme, which is located on the cross-border of the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal. Rotating at 428 revolutions per minute, each unit will produce 333 MW, a total for the station of 1,332MW (or 1.3GW) Now this is what preparation for renewable energy is all about! SA already has smaller hydro storage schemes as well as 24/7 solar power generation in the Northern Cape. But this storage scheme will act as a massive "battery" or energy storage device for the entire grid. When there are peaks in power usage, or if wind and other generation is not enough at night, this storage scheme will release stored energy to balance the grid. During the day or when other excess energy is generated, it will pump water up into the storage for later use. See http://ift.tt/2gaCl0y
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