Cape Town is the only city in South Africa to own and operate a large pumped hydro-electric scheme.
Regular maintenance and good management are imperative to ensure that the Steenbras Hydro Pump Station works well to offset high tariff and demand periods, as well as to protect City-supplied customers from stages of load-shedding where possible.
Approximately R1 billion has been set aside for the refurbishment and extension of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme and approximately R200 million is earmarked for the maintenance of Steenbras.
“The investment in Steenbras and the maintenance programme is crucial to fulfilling the City’s commitment to protect customers from a stage or two of load-shedding where possible, with plans to expand protection with up to four stages in the near future as part of the load-shedding protection plan. Importantly, all Capetonians benefit directly or indirectly from the City’s power generation management and load-shedding protection as it also protects critical City infrastructure used for service provision and protects the City’s electricity network,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.
The 160 megawatt Steenbras Hydro Pump Station (SHPS) consists of four turbines that are used to generate electricity. During peak electricity demand, it channels water from Upper Steenbras to Lower Steenbras, through the turbine generator, to create electricity. When electricity usage is low, usually between 23:00 and 07:00, the turbines pump the water back to the Upper Steenbras Dam to be re-used the next day. In this way, SHPS operates like a battery. The amount of electricity that it can generate in one day is limited by the capacity of the lower reservoir.
