Needs
In South Africa, a country that has invested heavily in the development of renewable energies, Eskom is the largest electricity operator controlled by the Government, generating 95% of the national electricity and 45% of the electricity used in the whole of Africa. As part of the plans to upgrade its network of photovoltaic parks, Eskom has decided to build two large plants in the areas of Paleisheuwel and Tom Burke (declared a national point of interest in 2017 for its strategic importance).
Solution
Eskom has appointed Enel Green Power to build the two maxi plants including control systems supply from DP Selta Infrastructures that thanks to its long experience and expertise, has been able to meet the needs with a complete solution. The supply of DP Selta Infrastructures includes: - 100 remote control units, DP Selta Infrastructures STCE-R, connected to a clusters of panels, to collect operating data - the control units are connected to plant SCADA systems, which are redundant to ensure continuous operation. SCADA systems collect and transmit data to the supervision center at Enel Green Power in Johannesburg as well as transmit them to the Eskom center - monitoring and support are provided for higher security also from the remote assistance center of DP Selta Infrastructures (Piacenza) Monitoring allows analysis at inverter level, so that the plant staff can be immediately present on potential problems and maximize efficiency. Solar panels are cleaned twice a year to maximize production.
Benefits
Thanks to this new "turnkey" project by DP Selta Infrastructures for the two photovoltaic mega-parks, the South African company Eskom can satisfy the request of 86 thousand South African families with a total capacity of 148 MW and an annual production of 275 GWh. Thanks to this typology of projects that SELTA realizes all over the world, by 2019 South Africa will be able to boast a capacity of 5000 MW in renewable energies, with the consequent positive impact on the reduction of CO2 emissions.